The UCI Road World Championships Elite Women's Road Race is a one-day event for professional cyclists that takes place annually. The winner is considered the ''World Cycling Champion'' (or ''World Road Cycling Champion'') and earns the right to wear the ''

Rainbow Jersey The rainbow jersey is the distinctive cycling jersey, jersey worn by the reigning World Cycling Championship, world champion in a cycling discipline, since 1927. The jersey is predominantly white with five horizontal bands in the Union Cycli ...

'' for a full year in road race or stage events. The event is a single 'mass start' road race with the winner being the first across the line at the completion of the full race distance. The road race is contested by riders organized by national cycling teams as opposed to commercially sponsored or ''trade teams'', which is the standard in professional cycling.

History

The UCI Road World Championships for women made its debut in

Reims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...

, France in

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

. Due to the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

, the Road World Championships were not held in 1984, 1988 and 1992. Until about 1990, the race varied in length from a low of 46.6 km in 1966 to around 72 km (30 to 50 miles). From 1991, the race length began to gradually increase, first to 79 km (

Stuttgart, Germany Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

), and then to over 100 km in 1996 (

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

, Switzerland). Since 2010, the course has varied in length between and . The event can be held over either a relatively flat course which favors cycling sprinters or over a hilly course which favors more of a

climbing specialist A climbing specialist or climber, also known as a grimpeur, is a road bicycle racer who can ride especially well on highly inclined roads, such as those found among hills or mountains. Role of climber in a race In a sustained climb, the average ...

or all-round type of cyclist. It usually involves laps of a circuit, albeit with fewer laps than the Elite Men's race. From 2022 to 2024, competitors in this race under the age of 23 at the end of the previous year were also competing for honours in their own classification. Historically, European nations have dominated this event.

Results

Most successful riders

''Updated after the

2024 UCI Road World Championships The 2024 UCI Road World Championships was the 97th edition of the UCI Road World Championships, the annual world championships for road bicycle racing. It was held between 22 and 29 September 2024 in Zürich, Switzerland, alongside the 2024 UCI ...

Medalists per nation

''Updated after the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uci Road World Championships - Women's road race Women's road race Women's road bicycle races Lists of UCI Road World Championships medalists