Some of the world’s best riders are ready to take on Welsh roads as the Tour of Britain Women comes to Wales for two days.

The biggest women’s road cycling race in the UK, which began in Cumbria on Wednesday and ends in Warwickshire on Sunday, 23 August, is taking place across five stages for the first time, with two of them in Wales.

Stage three will see riders tackle a 104.7km route from Mold to the iconic Great Orme in Llandudno, then on Saturday they travel 138.3km from Llanidloes to Hay-on-Wye for stage four, with both stages promising a challenging weekend of racing.

It will be the first time Mold has hosted the start of a stage and the first time the area has hosted the women’s race, with Flintshire having previously welcomed the men’s Tour.

Powys will again welcome riders to its roads on Saturday, having hosted stages of both the women’s and men’s races in the area since 2010.

The run from Llanidloes to Hay-on-Wye includes the race’s toughest climbs and highest total ascent at 2,280m.

For Welsh fans, the arrival of the tour offers a chance to watch a strong contingent of homegrown riders racing alongside some of the sports biggest names, including 2024 winner and two-time world champion, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx – Protime).

Among the Welsh headliners is British champion Zoe Backstedt who goes into stage 3 in 51st, 2 minutes 48 seconds behind leader, Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx – Protime).

The 21-year-old is competing less than three weeks on from making her highly anticipated Tour de France (TdF) Femmes debut, where she finished 50th overall.

Racing on home roads will offer Backstedt another exciting opportunity to build on what has already been a successful season.

The Canyon-SRAM rider has won British road race and time trial titles plus a sprint stage at the Tour de Suisse Femmes, and retained the 2026 Baloise Ladies Tour title a year after becoming the youngest winner of the race.

And she has her elder sister, Elynor Backstedt who rides for UAE Team L’IMAD, for company, making this year’s race a family affair, with their father Magnus also taking on a sport director role for Human Powered Health.

Despite crashing on stage two, Anna Morris (Great Britain National Team) sits 20 seconds behind leader Wiebes and is the best-placed Welsh rider heading into the third stage.

It’s a chance for crowds to see Morris racing on home soil for the first time following her recent success on the track at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The Welsh rider won two gold medals as well as a bronze in the team pursuit.

Lucy Lee who rides for DAS – Hutchinson competes the Welsh contingent after Jess Roberts was forced to abandon the race following a crash on stage one.

Britain’s only World Tour race continues to go from strength to strength.

It has increased from four days of racing to five, achieving full stage count parity with the men’s race and further raising the profile of women’s professional cycling.

Lizzy Felton, Beicio Cymru Breeze women and girls area co-ordinator for south-west and west Wales, told BBC Radio Cymru: “The race is a great opportunity to inspire people to go and watch the race and to take up cycling.

“The way that female cycling has grown is fantastic and the racing we’ll see over the next few days in Wales will be brilliant.

“The mountains are beautiful. We have big races coming here, we are preparing for the biggest race in the world – the Tour de France is coming to Wales next year.

“You can feel an energy, everyone is so welcoming and this is such a good opportunity to get out and see the best female cyclists in the world racing in Wales which will be special.”

While the Tour of Britain expanding to a five day format has been welcomed by riders, media coverage of women’s cycling lags behind the men’s.

Only three of the nine stages of this year’s Tour de France Femmes were broadcast live in their entirety.

Less than a year before the TdF Femmes stages its 2027 Grand Départ in the UK, Olympic gold medallist and three-time world champion Dani Rowe told Radio Wales Breakfast she hopes coverage will improve for next year’s race.

“There has been a snowball effect in terms of the growth of women’s cycling, and that all comes down to the coverage,” Rowe said.

“Ultimately, the more coverage we get, the more money we get into the sport and the professionalism rises.

“The growth, the strength and depth rises throughout the whole of the peloton and not just a couple of riders who are being paid a decent living. It’s the entirety of the peloton and that means the level just rises.

“I hope next year we will get more line-to-line coverage because it also tells more of the story. It gives a better narrative.”

Safety has been at the forefront of every riders’ mind since the death of Welsh rider Finlay Tarling in the Volta a Portugal last Friday sent shockwaves through the cycling community.

The 19-year-old NSN Cycling rider died following a high-speed collision with a van which had strayed on to the closed road.

The Tour of Britain is a smaller event in the cycling calendar – similar to the Volta a Portugal. But they both use ‘rolling roadblocks’, where police and officials travel in front of and behind the peloton.

Riders have been wearing black armbands in memory of Tarling, with a moment of applause held in a touching tribute to the teenager before the start of the race on Wednesday.

“Wednesday’s tribute was what Fin deserved. He was such a loved member of the British cycling community and his loss has been felt so deeply across the sport,” said Rowe.

“All of the riders will have ridden with him in their hearts on Wednesday, and will continue to do so because it is a huge loss.”

Since Tarling’s death there have been calls for greater safety in the sport, including from the winner of stage one and two, Dutch cyclist Lorena Wiebes.

The Tour of Britain is run under rolling road closures, with marshals and traffic management teams operating throughout.

Those measures have already been put to the test after Australian rider Maeve Plouffe says she narrowly avoided being hit by a car during the first stage of the tour.

Stage two also saw the race neutralised for half hour and the peloton brought to a complete standstill after a reported motor accident further ahead on the course.

After half an hour waiting in the rain, the stage was restarted under an escort.

No riders were affected by the motor accident, which occurred on an open stretch of the route ahead of the race.