Three British teams will join a further thirteen squads for the 2015 Friends Life Women’s Tour, which begins in Bury St Edmunds on 17 June.
Matrix Fitness, Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International and Wiggle Honda will line up alongside top international squads including Rabo Liv, Boels Dolmans Cycling Team and Orica AIS for the second edition of the multi-day event, which will feature daily highlights in ITV4.
While rider line-ups for the 16 teams will be made later during the spring and early summer, it is likely that a strong contingent of British riders will be present.
2014 UCI Women’s Road World Cup winner Lizzie Armistead will be keen to perform again in front of a home crowd after being forced to withdraw on the final stage from the inaugural event.
Laura Trott rode the 2014 event for Wiggle Honda and got a massive reception when the race passed through her hometown, the Olympic champion now riding for a Matrix Fitness outfit also containing Elinor Barker.
Top British riders Dani King, Anna Christian and Amy Roberts are part of Wiggle Honda’s British core and are likely candidates for a place in Britain’s premier multi-day road event.
Lucy Garner, who rode the 2014 edition as part of a Great Britain Cycling Team squad, may also return riding for her Team Liv Plantur trade outfit and like Trott, enjoyed the route passing by her home in Leicestershire.
And with Sarah Storey’s Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International squad containing a strong British line-up including Joanna Rowsell, Katie Archibald and Ciara Horne, British fans are likely to have plenty to cheer about over five days of action.
Led by the world’s number one team Rabo Liv, who won the 2014 Friends Life Women’s Tour with Marianne Vos, all of the world’s top six trade teams will ride in this June’s event.
The teams invited also boast all bar seven of the world’s top 50 riders ranked by the sport’s governing body, the UCI, as of their end of February rankings.
Commenting on the announcement, Mick Bennett, Race Director of organisers SweetSpot said;
“We have once again secured a world-class line-up of teams for the Friends Life Women’s Tour, which surpasses even that of our inaugural event in 2014. To have attracted so many of the world’s top teams to race in Britain shows the high regard in which the Friends Life Women’s Tour is already held, a regard which we will reward with another exciting and high-profile race this June.
“Over the coming weeks and months we look forward to confirming many of the world-class riders that we know will be racing at the Friends Life Women’s Tour, giving cycling fans in the UK something to look forward to this June.”
Joining the professional teams will be the national teams of Germany and the United States, both ranked in the top four nations in the world.
Winners of the 2014 team classification Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies and UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling return to the race, while new additions are the Italian Ale Cipollini team and French Poitou-Charentes Futuroscope-86 squad.
The complete list of teams for the 2015 Friends Life Women’s Tour
- Ale Cipollini (Italy)
- Bigla Pro Cycling Team (Switzerland)
- Boels Dolmans Cycling Team (Netherlands)
- Germany national team
- Lotto Soudal (Belgium)
- Matrix Fitness (Great Britain)
- Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies (USA)
- Orica AIS (Australia)
- Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International (Great Britain)
- Poitou-Charentes Futuroscope-86 (France)
- Rabo Liv Cycling Team (Netherlands)
- Team Liv Plantur (Netherlands)
- UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling (USA)
- USA national team
- Velocio SRAM (Germany)
- Wiggle Honda (Great Britain)
Route
The Friends Life Women’s Tour will run from Wednesday 17 to Sunday 21 June 2015
- Stage One Wednesday 17 June Bury St Edmunds to Aldeburgh
- Stage Two Thursday 18 June Braintree to Clacton
- Stage Three Friday 19 June Oundle to Kettering
- Stage Four Saturday 20 June Waltham Cross to Stevenage
- Stage Five Sunday 21 June Marlow to Hemel Hempstead
