2017 The Women's Tour

17 teams participated in the 2017 Women's Tour.[5] The top 15 UCI Women's World tour teams were automatically invited, and obliged to attend the race. On 15 February 2017 race organisers announced that Drops and Team WNT were invited to compete in the tour.[6]

The route

On 15 February the route for the race was revealed. The 2017 Tour began with a stage between Daventry and Kettering in Northamptonshire. The second stage featured Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire before a third stage between Atherstone and Leamington Spa. The fourth stage started and finished in Chesterfield before the final stage took place in London on the same 6.2-kilometre (3.9 mi) circuit that is used in the Tour of Britain.[3][6][7]

Stage schedule

Stage	Date	Course	Distance	Type		Winner
1	7 June	Daventry to Kettering	147.5 km (91.7 mi)		Flat stage	Katarzyna Niewiadoma (POL)
2	8 June	Stoke-on-Trent to Stoke-on-Trent	144.5 km (89.8 mi)		Hilly stage	Amy Pieters (NED)
3	9 June	Atherstone to Leamington Spa	150.8 km (93.7 mi)		Hilly stage	Chloe Hosking (AUS)
4	10 June	Chesterfield to Chesterfield	123.1 km (76.5 mi)		Hilly stage	Sarah Roy (AUS)
5	11 June	London to London	62 km (38.5 mi)[lower-alpha 1]		Flat stage	Jolien D'Hoore (BEL)

Katarzyna Niewiadoma (WM3 Pro Cycling), the winner of the general classification

In the Women's Tour, five different jerseys were awarded. The most important was the general classification, which was calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage. Time bonuses were awarded to the first three finishers on all stages: the stage winner won a ten-second bonus, with six and four seconds for the second and third riders respectively.[23] Bonus seconds were also awarded to the first three riders at intermediate sprints; three seconds for the winner of the sprint, two seconds for the rider in second and one second for the rider in third.[23] The rider with the least accumulated time is the race leader, identified by a green jersey.[23] This classification was considered the most important of the 2017 Women's Tour, and the winner of the classification was considered the winner of the race.

Additionally, there was a points classification, which awarded a white jersey, with black, blue and pink trim.[23] In the points classification, cyclists received points for finishing in the top 10 in a stage. For winning a stage, a rider earned 15 points, with 12 for second, 9 for third, 7 for fourth with a point fewer per place down to a single point for 10th place.[23] There was also a sprints classification for the points awarded at intermediate sprints on each stage – awarded on a 3–2–1 scale – where the leadership of which was marked by a red jersey.[23]

There was also a mountains classification, the leadership of which was marked by a predominantly black jersey.[23] In the mountains classification, points towards the classification were won by reaching the top of a climb before other cyclists. Each climb was categorised as either first, second, or third-category, with more points available for the higher-categorised climbs. First-category climbs awarded the most points; the first ten riders were able to accrue points, compared with the first six on second-category climbs and the first four on third-category.[23]

The fifth and final jersey represented the classification for British riders, marked by a light blue and pink jersey. This was decided the same way as the general classification, but only riders born in Great Britain were eligible to be ranked in the classification.[23] There was also a team classification, in which the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added together; the leading team at the end of the race was the team with the lowest total time.[23]

Classification leadership by stage

Stage	Winner	General classification	Points classification	Mountains classification	Sprints classification	British rider classification	Team classification
1[24]	Katarzyna Niewiadoma	Katarzyna Niewiadoma	Katarzyna Niewiadoma	Audrey Cordon	Lisa Klein	Alice Barnes	WM3 Pro Cycling
2[25]	Amy Pieters					Hannah Barnes	Cervélo–Bigla Pro Cycling
3[26]	Chloe Hosking				Jolien D'Hoore	Alice Barnes
4[27]	Sarah Roy		Christine Majerus			Hannah Barnes	Team Sunweb
5[28]	Jolien D'Hoore				Christine Majerus
Final[28]		Katarzyna Niewiadoma[1]	Christine Majerus[29]	Audrey Cordon[30]	Christine Majerus[31]	Hannah Barnes[32]	Team Sunweb[33]

• 2017 in women's road cycling

• Official website