Dutch rider Wiebes, 26, and American Faulkner, 32, will be going up against a field also including Mauritius-born Kim Pienaar and Australia’s Ruby Roseman-Gannon over four stages starting at Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire. That stage will see cyclists heading north to Redcar on the Tees Valley coast, and it will be followed by a ride along the North Sea coast from Hartlepool to Saltburn-by-the-Sea the day after, June 6; a loop starting and ending in Kelso on Saturday the 7th and a finale in Glasgow on Sunday the 8th. Wiebes, ranked third in the world, won one stage of last year’s tour, the ninth, in Warrington in Cheshire of Britain Women, with overall victor Lotte Kopecky finishing first in two, both in Wales, and Roseman-Gannon, 26, coming out on top in the other, in Manchester. Faulkner, current US champion and winner of road-race and team-pursuit gold medals at last year’s Olympics in France, is looking forward to returning to Great Britain for the Lloyds Bank-sponsored competition, part of the International Cycling Union’s women’s world tour, saying: “I’m really excited for the Tour of Britain Women. “It is going to be a lot of rolling terrain, which is unique to the UK, and I actually really like that, so I’m quite excited. “After a slow start to my season and coming back from an injury this winter, I’m really excited to have a big goal and I’m hoping to peak for the Tour of Britain, so that’ll be a really exciting goal for me to look forward to and to have as a key race in my season.” Further confirmations of riders competing will follow. The 2025 female tour’s Borders stage will commence and conclude in Kelso’s town square and it will follow an 89-mile route similar to that taken by last year’s male version of the tour nine months prior, with competitors that time round including Borderer Oscar Onley. Starting at 11am, it will head north-west from Kelso, passing Mellerstain House and going through Smailholm, en route for the first of two climbs of Scott’s View, followed by going under Leaderfoot viaduct, crossing the River Tweed and passing through Melrose on their way to a second climb at Dingleton. After that, riders will head south via Denholm on their way to a climb up Dunion Hill before a descent into Jedburgh and return north-east to Kelso alongside the Tweed for an intermediate sprint, two circuits of the grounds of Floors Castle, a second ascent of Scott’s View, another climb of Dingleton six miles later and then a nine-mile ride back to Kelso via St Boswells, with proceedings expected to wrap up around 3pm.