This weekend sees the Santos Women's Tour Down Under open the curtain on the 2026 Women's WorldTour season, with the best start list in its 12-year history. For the first time ever, the race will feature every one of the 14 WorldTour teams, who bring some big names to start at Willunga on Saturday.
The race is the first to be held under newest regulations introduced by the UCI, which govern the teams allowed to participate in Women's WorldTour races. For the first time, WorldTeams will be required to compete in all three women's Grand Tours and are permitted to skip only one of the remaining 24 WorldTour races in 2026, whereas previously the Women's WorldTour didn't have mandatory participation. What's more, only a maximum of four teams can skip any given race.
Other regulations compel WorldTour races to invite the 14 WorldTeams and the seven second-tier ProTeams in the first instance, with Continental teams only permitted to make up the numbers when the minimum start list is not filled.
We'll come to minimum and maximum numbers later, but what that means is that neither of Australia's two Women's Continental teams, Meridian-Bikebug and Liv AlUla Jayco Continental, will race in South Australia this week, though national teams are permitted, and an Australian squad will start.
These regulation changes are all part of the UCI's ongoing move to professionalise the women's sport, and they certainly bring it into line with the men's WorldTour. However, they have raised some concerns from WorldTeams.
Perhaps the unintended consequence of teams only being able to skip one WorldTour race per year is the effective extension of the WorldTour season, which starts on Saturday and finishes on October 18 at the Tour of Guangxi. There are two races in both Australia and China, with the Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race following the Tour Down Under and the Tour of Chongming Island preceding the Tour of Guangxi.
"You can skip one [race per season], yeah, but it makes no sense to fly to Australia for one race. It makes no sense to fly to China for one race, so you cannot skip one [of those]," Danny Stam, sporting manager at SD Worx-Protime, told Cyclingnews. His team are racing the Tour Down Under for the first time ever this year, due to the new rules.
"Actually, we'll do all the races, but our sponsors are not interested in Australia; they are not interested in China."
And with the regulations requiring teams to "take part with a team of competitive riders in UCI Women’s WorldTour events," it's not only teams' logistics that are under pressure to perform for 10 months of the year, but riders too.
Could we see riders burnt out?
"It's extremely difficult, we already had problems when we didn't do Down Under and China to get everybody in a top shape," Stam continues. "And the funny thing is that UCI wants that you give the girls some rest days, implement some holidays. But on the other side, they force you to fly over there.
"I'm afraid that the level goes down instead of going up, because the rest, train and race periods are pretty full."
Grace Brown won both the Olympic and World time trial titles before retiring in 2024 and is now President of rider advocacy group The Cyclists' Alliance, which has had its eye on the new regulations for some time. In their last rider survey, they noted an increase in race days for women, but she says the figures are only part of the story.
"Each individual race has a lot of baggage," she says. "Women might do less race days in a year [than men], but we're not doing three-week tours, so every single race day, especially the Classics, equals four days on the road. A lot of riders last year were already feeling a bit of burnout, especially coming into the end of the year, and that pressure falls disproportionately on certain riders in a team as well.
"The stars like Demi Vollering [FDJ United-SUEZ], Kasia Niewiadoma [Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto[, and Elisa Longo Borghini [UAE Team ADQ] get to choose their calendar. Then, probably the weaker riders in the team will be a bit of filler, and it's always the middle tier, the strong, reliable riders, that get completely overworked, because they can do it, and they keep saying yes.
"We don't know what the effect is going to be yet. We're thinking of monitoring over the season to understand what is the real impact of these changes and the added number of races that the WorldTour teams have to do."
The increased pressure is exacerbated by the number of riders on many WorldTeams. UCI regulations allow a maximum of 22 riders if a roster includes two first-year professionals, and 20 otherwise. However, no team has a full roster for 2026. The average number of riders per team is 17.4; only three teams have 20 riders, and nine of the 14 squads have fewer riders than they did last season. Compare that to the men's WorldTour, where all teams are within three of the 30-man maximum.
Both Stam and Brown point to increased salaries as one of the main contributors to this.
"There's a lot of pressure increasing top riders' salaries, they're going up exponentially," Brown explains. "I think that's affecting teams being able to actually have a full team, because they're investing in the stars so much that they have nothing left for the rest. Logically, they should be having bigger rosters, but obviously, it's just not stacking up.
"The depth is probably as strong as it's ever been. The number of riders that are out there on the market looking for contracts that are strong enough to be in the WorldTour peloton, they're there, it's just the resources are being spread thin by these requirements."
Cyclingnews put a number of questions to the UCI about the new regulations. On the issue of extra pressure on teams and riders, the governing body said: "The UCI Women's WorldTour calendar is indeed a little more extensive than the men's regarding starting date, but there are no three-week Grand Tours as there are for the men, and the total number of race days per year is significantly lower than for the men. In addition, the maximum number of race days allowed per rider is higher for men (85) than for women (75)."
More races means more travel, more travel means more expense
We know already that being a WorldTour team is more expensive than ever, but it's not just riders' earnings that are placing financial burdens on teams.
"It's clear that the salaries from the riders are going extremely up," Stam says. "The programmes are growing hard so you need more people in the staff. You almost always race a double programme. So I think then we have the calculation. The same with flying to Australia, yeah, we get a good fee but it's not covering all the costs."
Race organisers are required to contribute towards teams' travel expenses, but we've been told by multiple sources that, in many cases, the contributions can cover as little as 20%.
"It’s incredibly challenging for teams to attend all WorldTour races when we are doing so for much below cost price. We literally have to pay to go to races because the start fees do not come close to covering our costs. Until this is rectified, we have a big problem with this new rule," one senior WorldTour team staffer told Cyclingnews.
Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto team manager Ronny Lauke is also feeling the pinch. "We have competed at all WorldTour races from the beginning, except China, so for us it's not a major change," Lauke says. "I have an understanding for this rule, for this obligation, but it does put pressure on us, on the teams, that we find the necessary finances for it, because none of the costs that we receive cover what we actually spend. So that's the only challenge; we are used to dealing with that challenge, so we will find a solution."
While both Stam and Lauke acknowledge that the Australian and Chinese races pay a greater proportion of expenses than others, only the UAE Tour comes anywhere near the actual sum spent to go there, but the shortfall remains.
The consultation process
"It hasn't been considered very well, bringing this rule in, as with a lot of rules," Brown said of the latest regulation changes. So what consideration was there?
Up until the end of 2024, the women's teams were represented by UNIO. Set up in 2020, the following year the UCI recognised them as an official stakeholder, even making financial contributions, but by February last year, when the last raft changes were announced, that relationship was over and UNIO was gone. Instead, three months after the announcement, in May 2025, the influential men's team association the AIGCP, created a women's branch, though what they achieved is not known.
"To be honest, I don't have the feeling they are listening now," Stam replied when asked about consultation with the UCI. "We don't see so much passion for these kind of changes, it's not that all the teams say, okay, we want it, or we don't want it, it's just one moment it's there. And that's actually how they work."
The UCI affirmed that the standard consultation process had taken place: "This change of regulation has followed the normal process of regulation changes where all stakeholders (including teams) have representatives within UCI Commission. Though [the] UCI can understand that some teams might not agree with this change, we can also refer to some teams having requested the implementation of such a regulation. Finally, it is a change that is part of the global evolution of women cycling, with the introduction of mandatory participation for UCI Women’s WorldTeams in UCI Women’s WorldTour events, and the creation of UCI Women’s ProTeams."
Whatever consultation there was, one thing is certain: if the changes play out as they are written, we will see smaller pelotons. The UCI's rule book can be difficult to navigate, but Regulation 2.1.007 states a WorldTour race must host a minimum 15 teams, the number the Tour Down Under starts with this weekend. That's all 14 WorldTour teams plus one national team, zero ProTeam outfits.
In all but the longest races, where teams have seven riders, that makes for a 90-rider peloton. There's a maximum number too: 24 teams allowed to start. However, we've been doing the calculations, and this number is no longer possible. If all 14 WorldTeams and all seven ProTeams accept their invitation and the race's home federation fields a national squad, there are only 22 squads on the start line.
This will affect the Spring Classics, where all but two of the 11 one day races between Strade Bianche and Liège-Bastogne-Liège hosted a full start list in 2025 and, while most non-WorldTour teams will still want to ride the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, will they want to incur the expense of Trofeo Alfredo Binda or the Ronde van Brugge (formerly Classic Brugge-De Panne)? We could genuinely see these races with as few as 15 teams, spoiling the spectacle of a magical time of year.
This would be exacerbated by the absence of the attacking exploits of the Continental teams that can only be invited if fewer than the minimum teams are riding. For that to happen, seven of the 21 first and second-tier teams will need to decline an invitation before a third division team can ride a WorldTour race. There is hope, though, as however unlikely that calculation might appear, we are aware of three WorldTour races which have already invited Continental teams.
Regarding the minimum and maximum number of teams permitted in WorldTour races, the UCI said: "If after the invitation of all the UCI WWT and all the UCI PRW the number of riders registered remains under 90, in this case, the organiser can invite UCI Women Continental Team (with a priority of the teams of the country of the race) upon authorisation of the UCI."
The regulations do not mention any other circumstances where Continental teams can participate, however, we asked under what circumstances organisers could invite UCI Women’s Continental Teams if 15 or more World or Pro teams have accepted their invitations. "Organisers can always make a request that will be assessed by the UCI, in compliance with UCI Regulations."
Could the regulations kill the goose which laid the golden egg?
"You have to say that the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and the name 'Tour de France' is such an iconic global brand that this has uplifted the sport of women's cycling a few levels," Lauke says.
While the Tour certainly turbocharged the women's sport more than anything else in recent history, there can be no question that UCI regulations have created structures and requirements which have given it a huge boost.
We can watch at least some of every top-level race live on TV, unheard of 10 years ago; we have 21 fully professional teams, minimum wages and even maternity leave – there is no formal paternity leave for male riders. However, these latest changes could have a detrimental effect, causing the sport to contract. As recently as last month, the UCI announced there would only be 14 WorldTeams despite 15 licences being available.
"I think the UCI needs to think a little bit about the programmes," Stam asserts. "Women's cycling is developing, but I think it's not a good sign if we have 15 licences, and there's only 14 teams.
"They must not forget that a men's team is 30 people, and women's teams get smaller because the budgets are not big enough. They want all the races the same, they want equal with the men's, but we're not there yet."
And Brown agrees. "Everyone's asking for the Women's WorldTour to be equal with the men's, without realising that we actually need to build, we need help to build the ecosystem of the women's peloton to the point where that's sustainable. I mean, this is putting pressure on all aspects, all stakeholders apart from the UCI."
