Two Brits, an Italian, a Dane, a Finn, and a Dutch rider walk into a… race? It sounds like the start of a classic English joke, but in reality, this international line-up will be taking to the Tour of Britain Women start line, going from North Yorkshire into Scotland.

Zoe Bäckstedt and Alice Towers will wave the British flag on home soil from Thursday June 5-8, joined by Chiara Consonni, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, Wilma Aintila, and Maike van der Duin. They will form a small part of the largest field in the event’s history, with eighteen teams taking to the start line.

Alice comes into the race with a main focus on contributing to team success, but hopes to profit from both a home-turf advantage and the comforts that it brings.

“We go to Tour of Britain with the main General Classification leader being Cille, but I will be there and around her as almost like a backup and also to support her. I think I will also try to look for my own opportunities, of course.”

“I’m really excited to be racing, even though it’s nowhere near where I’m from. But it still feels familiar, in the way that the roads and the towns are. It’s always nice to be in the UK, and I’m most looking forward to seeing the people out on the roads, hearing the familiar accents, and just having short, quick travel days. I’m flying home directly from Glasgow, so I should be home for dinner – I’m really looking forward to that.”

This year’s edition features four stages, all on brand-new routes for the women’s race, although parallels can be drawn to previous races gone by.

Stage one sees the peloton roll out from the serene Dalby Forest Cycle Hub. Although it’s a relatively short 82 kilometres, the stage packs in almost 1200 metres of climbing, signified at the 19km mark with a sharp 90-degree turn towards the North Moors National Park. The main challenge comes with the Blakey Ridge climb (5.6 km at 4.2%), which dominates the route through the remote, scenic moors. Smaller ascents, like Lingburn’s Bank (max gradient 14%), add further difficulty, before the riders face a meandering, largely descending 30 km towards the waterfront finish in Redcar.

At first glance, the course seems like one where a pure sprinter could manage their effort and rejoin the peloton for the finale. However, the character of British roads adds a unique dimension of difficulty, as Alice explains:

“The main difference is probably the heaviness of the roads. A lot of people think they’ve got a flat tire or their bike feels heavy, but it’s just how the roads roll. They’re much heavier than the smooth, fast roads in Spain, Italy, or Belgium. The surface here is a lot less forgiving.”

Stage two, at 114.6km, concludes near Redcar in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, but with a vastly different closing parcours. A brief overlap with the previous day’s route sees riders turn right rather than left, to face nearly two laps of a circuit used in the 2022 and 2023 British National Road Race Championships. Each lap includes nearly 400m of climbing over 19km, with constant steep tilts – both up and down. The loop culminates with the infamous 15% hairpin turns of Saltburn Bank itself, which flattens out just 300m from the finish.

The difficulty escalates again on stage three, as the race heads north, just over the Scottish border. At 143.8km and 2172 m of elevation, it’s an honest day in the saddle, where the road rarely provides a respite. A second ascent of the Dingleton climb (2.5 km at 6%) will almost certainly create sizeable splits, but the real intrigue lies in whether those gaps will hold during the fast, gently descending 23km to the line in Kelso.

Despite the stats, Alice doesn’t necessarily believe stage three alone will determine the race overall:

“Even though stage three looks the hardest on paper, I think all the stages are challenging in their own way. It’s more about being an all-round rider who can handle the GC. Racing in the UK isn’t always a pure power test on the climbs; it’s about fatigue resistance and the ability to withstand the elements.”

The Tour of Britain Women stage four finale is a circuit race in Glasgow – 10 laps of 8.4km, circling the inner city. These final two days in Scotland actually mark the first time that the country has hosted a UCI Women’s WorldTour event, despite the World Championships Road Race being held in Glasgow in 2023, albeit on differing circuit. This is the only day where a sizeable group sprint is an overwhelming possibility, although opportunists should never be counted out.

HOW TO FOLLOW

Stage 1 | Thursday, June 5 | Dalby Forest – Redcar | 81.7km | 1173m elevation | Start: 11:30 BST – Fastest finish: 13:52 BST

Stage 2 | Friday, June 6 | Hartlepool – Saltburn Bank | 114.6km | 1392m elevation | Start: 10:45 – Fastest finish: 14:00 BST

Stage 3 | Saturday, June 7 | Kelso – Kelso | 143.8km | 2172m elevation | Start: 11:00 – Fastest finish: 15:00 BST

Stage 4 | Sunday, June 8 | Glasgow – Glasgow | 82.2km | 577m elevation | Start: 10:00 – Fastest finish: 12:15 BST

Live coverage begins from flag drop each day on BBC Sport, Eurosport, Discovery Plus, TNT Sports, and the Tour of Britain Youtube Channel. Stay updated on X with #ToBW and #TourofBritain, and follow CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto’s social channels for the latest team updates.