Women's Tour organiser, SweetSpot, have confirmed it will offer live broadcasting of the Women's WorldTour race held from June 6-11, 2022 in the UK. It is the first time fans will be able to watch live streaming of the race after previous broadcasting plans fell through last year due to the impact of "commercial realities".
“Delivering a live TV broadcast for the Women’s Tour has been our biggest target ever since the event’s inaugural edition back in 2014. We hope that it proves transformative for women’s sport in the UK, as well as being something that further enhances the worldwide reputation of our race," said Hugh Roberts, Women’s Tour executive chairman.
“We thank all of those partners and stakeholders who have come forward to support us with this, and hope that it inspires more major brands to showcase their support of women’s sport by joining up with our event for 2023 and beyond as we continue to look for a headline sponsor.”
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Daily live coverage will be on Eurosport Player and GCN +, with the race’s highlights show following each evening on ITV4 in the UK. Organisers will release the live broadcasting schedule soon but confirmed to Cyclingnews that some stages will be shown from start to finish while others will be shown for approximately 90 minutes to 2 hours.
The Women's Tour, which began in 2014 and has been part of the Women's WorldTour since 2016, was cancelled in 2020 and postponed till later in the year in 2021.
The UCI has mandated that a race must provide at least 45 minutes of live coverage in order to qualify for its top-tier Women's WorldTour calendar as of 2020.
Live broadcast was originally planned for last year's event after organisers announced their commitment to deliver coverage as part of a five-year deal with Eurosport and the Global Cycling Network (GCN). However, a week before the event, it said this would not be possible due to the impact of “commercial realities".
In April, SweetSpot confirmed that it was seeking to raise a minimum of £75,000 from prospective sponsors towards the costs of the first-ever live broadcast of the event in 2022.
The broadcast has been made possible by self-catering accommodation provider cottages.com - part of Awaze, event stakeholders and Eurosport GCN, read a statement from SweetSpot.
"We are delighted to be partnering with these two fantastic events [The Women’s Tour and Tour of Britain] over the summer and particularly pleased our support is helping give greater prominence to international women’s sport,” said Marianna Helmer-Gregersen, European brand director at Awaze – the parent company of cottages.com.
”This is a great opportunity to not only showcase the size, scale and quality of our UK property portfolio to a global audience, but also to underline our commitment to Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at the same time."
Women's Tour schedule
- Stage 1: Colchester to Bury St Edmunds, 142.1km
- Stage 2: Harlow to Harlow, 92.1km
- Stage 3: Tewkesbury to Gloucester, 107.9km
- Stage 4: Wrexham to Welshpool, 144.7km
- Stage 5: Pembrey Country Park to Black Mountain, 106.6km
- Stage 6: Chipping Norton to Oxford, 142.9km
