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news
2017 Women's Tour final stage circuit.jpg2017 Women's Tour to begin in Northamptonshire and end in London
The five-stage 2017 Women's Tour will begin on Wednesday June 7 with a stage from Daventry to Kettering before its first ever London finish on Sunday June 11. The UK's biggest professional women's race – which last year was won by Britain's Lizzie Deignan – will also feature stages in Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Derbyshire.
"This year's route will combine testing climbs and beautiful scenery in the heart of England with the London finish, which will be an undoubted highlight of the sporting calendar," race director Mick Bennett told the BBC.
The opening stage sees the Women’s Tour return to Northamptonshire for the fourth year in a row, while stage two pays another visit to Stoke where Marianne Vos won last year.
Stage three will take the riders from Atherstone to Royal Leamington Spa, while stage four takes place on a tough loop in and around Chesterfield. The town hosted stage three last year and was where Lizzie Deignan made her decisive move into the yellow jersey.
The final stage will see the riders complete 14 laps of the 6km circuit used in last year’s Tour of Britain, starting and finishing on Regent Street and taking in Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, the Strand and Whitehall.
The stage will complete a weekend celebrating cycling in London, which will also include the London Nocturne on Saturday night. A festival site will host cycling activity, with opportunities to get involved and learn about cycling in London.
Bennett, said: “We’re delighted to have the opportunity to bring the Women’s Tour into the city centre. Having the race finish in London on such an iconic circuit takes the event to another level providing the ultimate platform for women’s sport.”
Olympic gold medallist Katie Archibald, who will be riding for Team WNT, said: “The race being hosted by London is a fantastic opportunity for women’s cycling and shows how far the sport has grown over the past couple of years.
“I'm excited but also nervous about the opportunity to ride the Women's Tour since it's one of the most competitive stage races on the women's UCI calendar. Riding for Team WNT I hope to make an impact on the road scene after a change of focus from an enjoyable track season in 2016.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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Those calipers arent the prettiest. Makes them look like Post-mount.
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No thanks...you can keep your mini cars off my bike lanes. I want the scooters (petrol and electric) off as well.
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Zorbing balls - if it saves just one life
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12 corners in just over 2km is a terrifying prospect if it rains!
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I think it's:...
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As it's often said -'the way to justify the building of a bridge is not too count the number of people swimming the crocodile infested river!'
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I used to go that way to work. It's nasty and congested. I doubt any changes will make the congestion worse.
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18 comments
Stages are generally put on in association with the local councils that want them - which is why they'll loop around the area belonging to one or two councils.
You want it in your area? Lobby your council to get in touch with Sweetspot. I'd love to see it down here in South Wales but unless our councils want it, I realise it's not happening
Dave - you keep saying it needs to improve, but given the very real obstacles that have been explained to you, you've not said how you'd do it differently....
That's fair.
Honestly, my main gripe is the geography. I think it's an event that needs to pretty much go past as many front doors as possible to win converts, and it isn't doing that - it's looping back and staying in a smallish overall area.
Look at the map and go for the greatest impact. Instead, the courses loop so the radius of exposure within a course is limited, and
they start and finish in a relatively small chunk of England.
I think what's needed is to start and end in cities and make the routes as straight as possible on order to increase those radii for exposure. This isn't that difficult: old Milk Race stages did it, early and recent ToBs have. Is it inconceivable to have a couple of stages starting and ending in Edinburgh/Glasgow, Leeds/Manchester/Sheffield, Swansea/Cardiff/Bristol?
I appreciate the difficulties and inconvenience of shunting the show 100 miles instead of 30 (actually I don't, as I've never moved a bike race, but can imagine some). Sweetspot do - they've been there and done that, and what do I know. Sweetspot might have learned that putting on those early ToB stages over 5 days nearly had people breaking down. I think the Women's tour is somewhere similar now, and surely the ToB picking those 5-day routes led to the exposure which helped it become what it is now. The Women's tour possibly has it harder, as there's an established men's tour (and TdY) to compete with. So more, not less, exposure is needed - and slotting it into an area not covered by these other cycling 'offerings' smacks of it being used to plug a product gap, not giving it the respect it deserves as the foremost women's race.
BC, while they absolutely can be blamed for the wider restrictions, surely can't be blamed for the stage choices. Seems unambitious to me.
To expeand on Dottigirl's excellent posts:
Take a look at the Men's ToB 2016 route - covers Glasgow to London. http://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/news/14384.php#.WKTGaRKLRE4
Why can't the women do something like this?
So to get a 5 day race with average of 120km stages, a London finish for maximum publicity for the sponsors and doable transfers - this is the kind of route you're going to get. It's already a great progression from the first couple of years which were all in the SE England.
Until BC and the UCI sort their shit out and let the WT grow into the event the sport deserves, this is what we're left with. Full credit to Sweetspot for organising an excellent event within the confines that they're forced to work with - and mostly for having the guts to put on a women's race when everyone was telling them there'd be no interest
There are difficulties, and British Cycling are making some weird decisions at the moment, and Sweetspot know what they're doing.
Then again, they know that organising a tour that doesn't just sit in the middle of the country over 5 stages is possible - they picked the ToB up again doing just that.
The main concern for me is that the country is at peak bike - maybe even past it. The UK is at the top of the world in sport cycling - male and female, multi-disciplines - it doesn't get better than where we are now. So it doesn't feel, to me, as though there is the luxury of building a platform for a genuine women's tour in a few years' time - they've got to get it in front of as many people as possible now.
Maybe they think that holding the stages around the centre of England is the best chance of doing that, but I'd disagree. It looks a conservative map to me, with a limited number of punters.
But I totally agree that it's BC that ultimately needs the shoeing - yet again. 5 days: stupidly restrictive. London procession: pointless. Finish in any other city and make a meaningful impression. Finish in London and be an also-ran.
This interview of Guy Elliott from Sweetspot by the excellent Sarah Connolly in 2015 gives more background to the reasons behind the regional routes:
https://prowomenscycling.com/2015/06/24/guy-elliott-2015-aviva-womens-tour/
davel
The womens peloton are not allowed to race as long stages as men. Also the men hated the really long transfers in the early ToB. The WT is more regional based and from the map I would expect the riders to only have to travel around an hour on most journeys. Great athletes deserve being looked after so they can perform their best.
If BC actually allow the race extra days, then the race can expand and cover greater areas each year. Sweetspot also try to spread their events round as much as possible over WT, TS and ToB. Together with RL, TdY most people have something to look forward to.
If anyone can find the funds to put together a "proper" Women's Tour of Britain I'm sure there would be interest...
BC WOULDN'T LET THEM!!! Before anyone else makes imbecilic comments, please read this:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/racing/british-cycling-rejected-appl...
(Admin - couldn't find a similar road.cc article, sorry.)
Sweetspot are doing their best, but their hands are tied. BC wouldn't even let them use the name, 'Women's Tour of Britain'. They blocked the extension from 5 to 7 days, etc.
When you have only 5 days and one of them has to be in London, you can only cover so much ground before transfers get unwieldy (long distances = more disruption for riders) and costs begin to spiral (all the stuff has to be set up and taken down every day, and transported to the new location). Added to this the restriction on length of stage races, I'm surprised Sweetspot manage as well as they do.
(This isn't even factoring in finding towns able to host the races, and not pissing off the areas that have done so much for them in the past. There's lots of relationships here, and finding new routes that work is a lot harder than you think.)
I'm struggling a bit here, so here comes the imbecilism!
The complaints above seem to be more to do with geographical reach, rather than the name. I don't think people would care that much what it was called if it was obviously the women's ToB.
When the Tour of Britain was getting going again, I'm pretty sure there were only 5 or 6 stages, one in London, and they managed to cover a much greater distance, so it is possible to do it in that many stages.
So that leaves inconvenience and cost. Is it really cheaper to set up and take down, or get accommodation in, the Midlands than in Scotland, the South West or North? Is transporting gear 120 miles prohibitively more expensive as compared to, say, 40? Are routes more difficult to plan through Scotland than they are through Staffordshire?
I might be overlooking some stuff - I've never organised a bike race - but I think I'm hearing excuses rather than answers. Fair enough, you can't please everyone, but pick those stages then prepare for some people moaning about it being a tour of the Midlands + London.
The same boring procession around London as the men then. In a five day race surely a day in another part of the country where a decisive break could be made would be much better.
Even though it takes money, time and everything else to organise Im sure the avearge cycling fan can still be disapointed that the top british female cycling race doesnt come anywhere near them.
Would love to see it in the north east
Who's doing the TV coverage? ITV?
Gleefully, my hometown of Leamington Spa gets the stage 3 finish! Considering the last thirty years I can count on exactly two fingers the road races coming through Warwickshire and one of those is the milk race.
@Man of Lard - localcouncils usually bid for stages, if yours hasn't or doesn't, then speak to them about it.
I'm glad they haven't had the brass neck to call it a "Tour of Britain" clearly nobody north of Derbyshire nor in Wales counts for jack all - as usual.
It's limited by which councils are willing to pay to host the stages,the lack of variety might suggest fewer are thesedays,or they just choose to pick hosting the mens race instead or a TourSeries, councils just identify it all as one big cycling thing to spend whatever cash they have on it,the distinction these are different events probably doesn't occur to them.
But I'm sure the London Nocturne organisers are delighted to host a crit event the night before another crit stage in London, that a good chunk of the best British women riders will be involved with instead
Or the south-west of England. Or the far south-east. Or East Anglia.
(I think you may have something on your shoulder... Just... There, got it!
)
Oh, how I love reading comments from people who know nothing about the history of the WT, nothing about what it takes to organise, especially on a budget, plus what restrictions BC and the UCI have placed on Sweetspot...