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Northants start for Women's Tour in May 2014 - race will feature world's best female riders

New race secures 2.1 status from UCI; start location suggest East Anglia and East Midlands will host remaining stages

The Women’s Tour, which has its inaugural edition next May, has been granted 2.1 status by the UCI, putting it on a par with races such us Italy’s Giro Rosa. Northamptonshire will host the start of the five-day race, which will run from 7 to 11 May.

Organisers SweetSpot, who have been running the Tour of Britain for the past decade, say that the decision to give the race 2.1 status, the highest available for a women’s stage race, means it will attract the world’s top female riders.

"We are absolutely delighted that the UCI have awarded us 2.1 status for this exciting new event,” commented SweetSpot Director Guy Elliott.

"Our first stage, including the Grand Depart, will be based entirely in Northamptonshire, which is a fantastic county for racing and will the first time that Northamptonshire has hosted a major Tour.

“The stage will be a challenging test for all riders on a beautiful and challenging route of opening day of the race, with plans to pass through many of the county's towns and villages.

"We are particularly pleased about Northamptonshire's plans to use the event to promote women's sport in its widest context to young people,” he added. 

Deputy leader for Northamptonshire County Council Councillor Heather Smith commented: "This is fantastic news for Northamptonshire and I am very pleased that we will be hosting the first stage of this prestigious event.

"Not only will The Women's Tour bring significant economic benefits to the county, it is also a real opportunity to promote cycling and women's sport locally.

"We want to use this event to encourage everyone in Northamptonshire, and in particular the county's young people, to get cycling and improve their health and wellbeing.

“This will be a very exciting event for Northamptonshire and will herald the start of a summer of sporting events across the whole county that everyone can look forward to.”

SweetSpot says that more details of Stage 1 of the race as well as the venues for the subsequent four stages will be announced in the months ahead.

Earlier this year, outlining plans for the race, Elliott told road.cc that it was envisaged that the race would be held in the East Midlands and East Anglia, and that discussions to secure TV coverage each day were well advanced.

“We have already been in discussion with TV and we are confident of having extensive coverage,” he explained. “We don’t want to say which station but we believe that will be a game-changer because we will have daily significant TV coverage.”

Besides organising the Tour of Britain, SweetSpot is also the company behind the Pearl Izumi Tour Series and sister event the Johnson Health Tech Grand Prix Series, both of which enjoy TV highlights showcasing the towns and cities they are held in.

Elliot told road.cc that the backdrop to the stages of the Women’s Tour would be an important element of the TV coverage.

“We are planning to take each stage to an old-fashioned county and give each stage its own theme around the county, like Cambridge with the spires and punting on the Cam and so package the race for TV,” he explained.

“Our plan is to get an hour’s TV coverage each day. 20-30 minutes of that might be focusing on the riders and their stories, what goes on behind the scenes, how to get into the sport and maybe 30 minutes on the actual racing.”

And as for the decision to head east, Elliott told us in July: “It’s an area that has not been visited so frequently by the men’s Tour of Britain, but there’s a great appetite for cycling from the local councils.

“For example we get great support from Colchester for the Tour Series; last year the start of the Tour of Britain was in Ipswich.

“We want to make sure that to start with the race is on flattish or undulating courses and in future years we will move towards more hilly region.

“We don’t want the race to be decided over one mountain with someone having five minutes lead,” he added.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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9 comments

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septic77 | 10 years ago
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WHERE'S THE ROUTE INFO?

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Gkam84 | 10 years ago
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Great for woman's cycling, Would have been nice to spread it out around the country though

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Miggers | 10 years ago
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Great news, more women's racing and in our county too..

A perfect complement to the Shutt Women's Team Series (shameless plug)

http://www.womensteamseries.co.uk/

Pete

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aslongasicycle | 10 years ago
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Cannot pigging wait! We hope to be involved. I hope to be in a team car!...*checks budget*

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James Warrener | 10 years ago
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Brilliant news... plenty on my doorstep to watch in 2014.

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jason.timothy.jones | 10 years ago
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I think its the bog of dogs...etceteras

The problem as I see it is that we cant keep the talented women riding in pro teams, because they dont get paid enough to make a living, they dont get paid enough because there is not enough money in womens cycling...or womens sport at all, this is because the sponsors are not interested, this is because the media focus on mens sports, not womens, this is because the media think thats what we want to see...

Te be honest I would rather be watching women in lycra than men in lycra

Just saying  1

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Simon_MacMichael replied to jason.timothy.jones | 10 years ago
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jason.timothy.jones wrote:

this is because the media focus on mens sports, not womens, this is because the media think thats what we want to see...

Yet... as it says in the article, they are very hopeful of TV coverage for this race. That was from an interview in July, but I think it's telling that ITV4 had a news story up on this morning's announcement very quickly  3

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sorebones | 10 years ago
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Really pleased to hear this race will start from and tour around Northants, we don't get to see much pro-level racing around these parts although the relatively flat terrain is no doubt to blame!

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farrell | 10 years ago
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On a related note, is anybody still agreeing with Armistead that Cookson should be forcing the ever dwindling number of sponsors of Men's cycling teams to create Women's teams?

Or has it been agreed that it was a ludicrously unworkable bag of dogs cock?

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