The 2026 Tour of Britain Women drew a larger UK television audience than the men's race according to figures from British Cycling which reported 822,900 viewers across ITV4/ITVX and TNT Sports, against 724,540 for the men on the same channels.
British Cycling said the women's figure was 292% higher than in 2025, and it exceeds the men's total by 98,360, or about 13.6%. The organiser did not say how viewers were counted, or specify the nature of the data source.
The women's race outdrew the men's despite getting less free-to-air live coverage. ITV4 and ITVX showed daily highlights of the women's five stages. The men's race was live on both channels for stages one to four and on ITVX for the final stage. TNT Sports and HBO Max showed every stage of both races live, and the race's YouTube channel streamed both for free.
The Tour de France Femmes figures we reported in August measured a different audience. In France, 23.2 million people aged four and over watched at least one minute of the nine-stage race on France Télévisions, with an average stage audience of 2.6 million, according to Médiamétrie figures. That is a different market, a race almost twice as long with daily live coverage on France 2, and a defined audience measure. In the UK, the 2026 Femmes was live only on TNT Sports and HBO Max, with no daily free-to-air highlights.
Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) won the women's race, which finished in Royal Leamington Spa. Thirteen of the 14 Women's WorldTour teams started. Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates XRG) won the men's race. British Cycling also reported 1.3 million viewers in France for the men's race and 28 million organic impressions across the race's digital channels.
Photo: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com2027 dates
The women's race will run August 11–15 next year and the men's September 1–5, both again over five days. The women's race moves forward eight days from its 2026 dates of August 19–23.
That puts it shortly after the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift visits Britain. The Femmes starts in Leeds on July 30 and leaves the country after an 18km team time trial in London on August 1. The men's Tour de France starts in Edinburgh on July 2.
All six British stages of the two Tours will be live on free-to-air Five, alongside TNT Sports, under an agreement announced in June. Daily Femmes highlights on 5 are also confirmed.
Under a six-year partnership signed in October 2024, IMG handles production and sponsorship for the races, and distributes their media rights. In August it brought in OMODA as official automotive partner of both editions, sponsoring the mountains classifications and supplying the race fleet.
