Tour of Britain Women


The Tour of Britain Women is a women's cycle stage race held in England and Wales, as part of the UCI Women's World Tour. The race was organised between 2014 and 2023 by SweetSpot, the company behind the men's Tour of Britain, and was known as The Women's Tour.
WWW tour-of-britain.com

History

The origins of the race trace back to 2010 when SweetSpot, the organisers of the men's Tour of Britain 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.
At the launch of the 2013 Tour of Britain, SweetSpot MD Chairman Hugh Roberts and director Guy Elliott announced 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 race in 2014, a women's one-day race was held on the final day of the 2013 Tour of Britain in London, won by Hannah Barnes.

The Women's Tour

In October 2013, it was announced 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 at the time. 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, the second edition in 2015 moved to a mid-June position, a slot it has held on the UCI calendar ever since – with the exception of the 2021 edition, where it was delayed to October due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2016, the race became a part of the inaugural UCI Women's World Tour, the leading series of races for professional women cyclists.
In 2017, the finished in London for the first time in race history, with Belgian rider Jolien D'Hoore winning the stage. Wales hosted the race for the first time in 2018, with the final stage taking place between Dolgellau and Colwyn Bay. The Women's Tour expanded to six days for the first time in 2019. The increase in days also heralded a slight shift of event days, as the race ran from Monday to Saturday.
SweetSpot announced in March 2020 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 and final stage in Suffolk 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." On 4 May, the 2020 Tour was cancelled. In February 2021, the 2021 Women's Tour was postponed from June to October.
The 2022 race returned to its traditional calendar slot in June, with a mountain top finish at Black Mountain in the Brecon Beacons.
SweetSpot announced the 2023 race route on 9 March 2023, but warned that the loss of key sponsors and increased running costs had left a shortfall in funding and that urgent additional income was required to ensure that the race could go ahead. On 31 March 2023, SweetSpot announced that the race would go on hiatus in 2023, in light of the above financial issues. In January 2024, organiser and promoter SweetSpot entered liquidation and the race was removed from the 2024 calendar.

Tour of Britain Women

In February 2024, British Cycling took over the running of the race, which was to be renamed as the Tour of Britain Women, and the race returned to the UCI Women's World Tour calendar but over a shorter four-day itinerary. In May 2024, the race gained sponsorship from Lloyds Bank – with the bank also sponsoring the men's Tour of Britain. The 2025 edition of the race also took place over four days, visiting Scotland for the first time. For 2026, the race will lengthen to five days, as well as moving to August as opposed to June.

Tour facts and figures

Overall winners
  • Nine riders have won the ten editions of the Tour of Britain Women since its inaugural 2014 race
  • Lizzie Deignan is the sole double champion in race history to date – winning the 2016 and 2019 editions.
  • Coryn Rivera became the first non-European rider to win the race overall when she triumphed in the 2018 edition.
  • Katarzyna Niewiadoma in 2017 and Lotte Kopecky in 2024 are the only riders to lead an edition of the race from start to finish.
  • The 2022 edition had the closest winning margin, with only one second separating winner Elisa Longo Borghini and runner-up Grace Brown. Longo Borghini's victory made her the oldest winner at 30 years, 184 days.
  • Niewiadoma won the 2017 edition by the biggest margin to date: one minute and 18 seconds. She was also the youngest winner at 22 years, 256 days.
Stage winners
  • Lorena Wiebes has won the most stages of the race to date: six.
  • Three riders have won multiple stages of the race in the same year – Marianne Vos, Wiebes, Jolien D'Hoore and Kopecky
  • Nine riders have won stages in more than one edition of the race – Vos ; D'Hoore ; Deignan ; Wiebes ; Christine Majerus ; Amy Pieters ; Lotta Henttala ; Sarah Roy and Niewiadoma.
  • Twenty-seven different riders have won stages of the Tour of Britain Women – the most recent addition to the list being Cat Ferguson in Kelso in 2025.
  • Fourteen different nationalities have won stages of the Tour of Britain Women. Dutch riders have won the most with seventeen stage wins.
Host venues