The organisers of the Women’s Tour have decided to postpone the stage race from June until October due to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and a long lockdown in Great Britain.
SweetSpot said it is working with the UCI and British Cycling to rearrange the Women's Tour for later in 2021 and it has requested alternate race dates of October 4-9.
The Women’s Tour is part of the UCI Women’s WorldTour and was set to start in Bicester, Oxfordshire and finish with a stage from Haverhill to Felixstowe in Suffolk. SweetSpot said it will announce full details of the 2021 route in the summer once the new dates are confirmed.
Lizzie Deignan won the 2019 Women's Tour but the 2020 edition of the race was cancelled due to the initial COVID-19 lockdown, with only a small number of women’s races rescheduled for later in the season.
This time SweetSpot hopes to provide some late-season racing.
"We are obviously disappointed to be postponing the Women’s Tour from June but hope that by aiming to stage the race in October we can give the teams and public something to look forward to at the tail end of the summer," said race director Mick Bennett.
The Women’s Tour continues to look for a headline sponsor for 2021 and beyond but has agreed to work with Eurosport and GCN to produce live television coverage of the race for the first time in 2021.
"We are working closely with SweetSpot and the UCI to confirm the proposed date change and look forward to welcoming the world’s best riders to the opening stage in Oxfordshire later this year," said British Cycling's Head of Sport and Major Events, Jonathan Day.
"We know just how important the Women’s Tour is for our teams and riders, and it’s been fantastic to see the race go from strength to strength over recent years, becoming a mainstay of the British sporting calendar.
