We’ve had to wait an extra month for the WTCS season to start following the postponement of Abu Dhabi but the quality of the women’s field in Samarkand on 25 April could hardly be better.

Unlike the men’s race where Alex Yee, Hayden Wilde and Matt Hauser are all missing, pretty much all the big hitters on the women’s side are travelling to Uzbekistan.

And France, Germany and GB in particular look super-strong.

Small but select French squad

The French only have two entries but they are spearheaded by Olympic champion Cassandre Beaugrand who, by her own incredible high standards, had a relatively quiet 2025 after a perfect 2024 when she not only won gold in front of home fans in Paris but then added a first world title.

We’ll get an indication of her run form when she takes part in the Lille 10km this weekend – and the race in Samarkand is over the Olympic distance.

Joining her will be Leonie Periault who had a fantastically consistent 2025 with six WTCS top five placings, including a victory in Hamburg.

That was over the Sprint distance but she’s arguably even more effective over further and she ran a brilliant 1:09 half marathon recently in Berlin.

German domination again?

Germany’s women started the 2025 WTCS season with a clean sweep of the podium in Abu Dhabi and they ended it with Lisa Tertsch becoming world champion for the first time.

She is back in action here and joined by the two compatriots who were second and third to her in Abu Dhabi – Nina Eim and Laura Lindemann.

Both are in form too – Eim won the recent World Cup in Lanzarote, where Lindemann made her return to action in third.

Tanja Neubert, Annika Koch and former World U23 champion Selina Klamt complete a six-strong German line-up to underline the strength in depth.

Magnificent seven

But that’s topped by Britain and they too could hardly be of higher quality.

Georgia Taylor-Brown, the most decorated Olympic female athlete, lines up for her first standard distance WTCS race since 2024 after finishing runner-up in the Lanzarote World Cup.

Beth Potter, the 2023 World Champion and double bronze medallist at Paris 2024, joins her as does T100 World Champion Kate Waugh and Jess Fullagar, who made such a splash in that sphere at T100 Gold Coast last month.

Liv Mathias, Sian Rainsley and Tilly Anema complete a formidable raiding party.

Anema and Fullagar also have experience from the Samarkand World Cup last year when they helped spark a breakaway on the bike.

Best of the rest

The American team is five-strong and topped by Taylor Spivey who is joined by 2016 Olympic champ Gwen Jorgensen, Danielle Orie, Erica Ackerlund and Kirsten Kasper.

Those four nations in particular illustrate just how fierce the battle will be just to qualify for the next Olympics when that window opens in May.

Others to watch out for include WTCS Yokohama winner Jeanne Lehair (LUX) and last weekend’s Quarteira winner Jolien Vermeylen (BEL) in what should be a sensational start to the campaign.

The full start list is here.