2022 Women’s WorldTour Calendar includes Tour de France Femmes and Giro d’Italia Donne
On Thursday the UCI announced the Women’s WorldTour calendar for 2022. The biggest new addition on the calendar is the eight-day Tour de France Femmes that will take place from July 24 to 31, directly after the men’s Tour de France.
There have been snippets of news regarding a women’s Tour de France for the last two years and Christian Prudhomme finally confirmed the event in May of 2021. In an interview with The Guardian, Prudhomme stated that there would be a women’s Tour de France that would take place once the men had finished racing, but did not confirm the number of stages or exact dates.
With the release of the 2022 WWT calendar, the number of stages and dates are confirmed, although the nature of the courses will not be revealed until the men’s route is announced much later in 2021.
The second biggest news is the re-installation of the Giro d’Italia Donne, or Giro Rosa, from July 1 to 10. The Giro Rosa had been a WorldTour event from 2016 to 2020 but was demoted to 2.Pro for 2021 after organizers failed to comply with UCI WWT regulations.
The longest stage race on the women’s calendar, the Giro d’Italia Donne has a complicated relationship with riders and fans. Despite the UCI rule that all WWT races must have at least 45 minutes of live coverage, 2021 will be the first year the event provides live viewing. Still, it is a prestigious race, and to win the pink jersey is a much sought-after feat, cementing the victor’s name in the history books of women’s cycling.
A few other additions to the calendar include three days of the RideLondon Classique in May and the long-anticipated Battle of the North. The inaugural six-day stage race in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden was set to start in 2021 but was postponed due to the pandemic. It was also originally slated to last 10 days but the organizers were unable to find a spot on the calendar for a 10-day event in August. The new race will replace the Ladies Tour of Norway, a four-day race that began in 2014.
As for the one-day events to take place in 2022, there is not much change. Although the ASO originally said they would still host La Course by the Tour de France as a single-day event during the men’s Tour, it does not appear on the current 2022 calendar. The women will kick off their WWT season with Strade Bianche in early March.
It looks like Paris-Roubaix will return to its originally Spring timeslot on April 10th, but with the luck they’ve had so far who knows what will happen. The Postnord Vargarda road race and time trial return to the calendar and will not be part of the Battle of the North as was originally planned in 2019.
Overall, the calendar is front-loaded with one-day events, with stage racing starting up mid-May and dominating July and August. The women will in theory have a lot more WWT race days in 2022, if all goes according to plan.
2.WWT Stage races
May 05-07: Tour of Chongming Island, China
May 13-15: Itzulia Women, Spain
May 19-22: Vuelta a Burgos, Spain
May 27-29: RideLondon Classique, Great Britain
June 6-11: Women’s Tour, Great Britain
July 1-10: Giro d’Italia Donne, Italy
July 24-31: Tour de France Femmes, France
August 9-14: Battle of the North, Norway
August 30-September 4: Boels Ladies Tour, Netherlands
September 8-11: Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta, Spain
1.WWT One-day events
March 5: Strade Bianche, Italy
March 13: Ronde van Drenthe, Netherlands
March 20: Trofeo Alfredo Binda, Italy
March 24: Oxyclean Classic Brugge-De Panne, Belgium
March 27: Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields, Belgium
April 3: Ronde van Vlaanderen, Tour des Flandres, Belgium
April 10: Paris-Roubaix, France
April 17: Amstel Gold Race, Netherlands
April 20: La Flèche Wallonne, Belgium
April 24: Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Belgium
August 6: Postnord Vargarda TTT, Sweden
August 7: Postnord Vargarda RR, Sweden
August 27: GP Lorient Agglomération-Trophée Ceratizit, France
October 18: Tour of Gaungxi, China
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