The Women's Tour

The Women's Tour is a women's staged cycle race which takes place in Great Britain and has been part of the new UCI Women's World Tour since 2016. Until 2015 it was rated by the UCI as a 2.1 race.[1]

The Women's Tour

Katarzyna Niewiadoma wearing the leader's green jersey as the 2017 edition passes through Warwick
Race details
Date	May or June
Region	Great Britain
Discipline	Road
Competition	UCI Women's World Tour
Type	Stage race
Organiser	SweetSpot
Web site	www.womenstour.co.uk
History
First edition	2014 (2014)
Editions	6 (as of 2019)
First winner	Marianne Vos (NED)
Most wins	Lizzie Deignan (GBR) (2)
Most recent	Lizzie Deignan (GBR)

Its origins trace back to 2010 when SweetSpot (the company behind the Women's Tour) organised their first women's cycling race, the Horizon Fitness Grand Prix in Stoke-on-Trent. What began as a supporting event for the men's Tour Series – Britain's leading televised cycle race series – grew into a key part of the women's racing scene in Britain, thanks to television coverage on ITV4 in the UK and around the world. In 2018, Britain's leading women's teams took part in the whole series for the first time.[2]

The Women's Tour is organised by the company behind the men's Tour of Britain, which has been an ever-present on the UCI calendar since 2004. At this event's national launch in March 2013, SweetSpot MD Chairman Hugh Roberts and director Guy Elliott first announced[3] the company's intentions to create a standalone stage race for the world's top female cyclists in Britain – the first event of its kind.

As a prelude to the inaugural 2014 Women's Tour, a women's one-day race was held on the final day of the 2013 Tour of Britain in London, won by Hannah Barnes.[4] As history would show, SweetSpot's move was one that the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana organisers would announce some months later.

Just a week after this SweetSpot received the news that the Women's Tour had been granted a place on the UCI calendar for May 2014, being granted what was the highest possible ranking for a stage race (2.1) at the time.[5] This put it instantly on a par with the world's top races for women. The first edition was a widely acclaimed success, attracting the world's top riders and teams and widespread media coverage for women's cycling in the UK.

While the first edition of the race took place in May (Wednesday 7 - Sunday 11), the second edition - 2015 The Women's Tour - moved to a mid-June position,[6] a slot it has held on the UCI calendar ever since.

In 2016 the race became a part of the inaugural UCI Women's WorldTour,[7] the leading series of races for professional women cyclists.

In 2017 The Women's Tour finished in London for the first time in race history,[8] with Belgian rider Jolien D'Hoore winning the stage.[9] Wales hosted the race for the first time in 2018, with the final stage taking place between Dolgellau and Colwyn Bay.[10][11]

The Women's Tour expanded to six days for the first time in 2019.[12] The increase in days also heralded a slight shift of event days, as the race ran from Monday to Saturday[13]

SweetSpot announced in March 2020[14][15] that the planned seventh edition of the race, scheduled to take place between Monday 8 and Saturday 13 June, was postponed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The race's Grand Départ in Bicester, Oxfordshire[16] and final stage in Suffolk[17] had already been announced. Organisers said that they "hope to work with the UCI and British Cycling to find an alternative date in the international cycling calendar for the race to take place should conditions permit."[18] On 4 May, the 2020 Tour was cancelled.[19]