Women’s professional road cycling received a massive boost earlier this week as the UCI announced that next years inaugural edition of the Women’s Tour will be awarded the prestigious 2.1 status, making it equal ranking to the men’s Tour of Britain.
We reported the launch of the Women’s Tour last month, which is set to depart from Northamptonshire next year running from Wednesday 7th to Sunday 11th May 2013. Guy Elliott, director of organisers SweetSpot, cannot wait for the Women’s Tour, now awarded the highest category to any international women’s event, to start.
We are absolutely delighted that the UCI have awarded us 2.1 status for this exciting new event,
– Guy Elliott, Director SweetSpot
Combined with race organiser SweetSpot’s commitment earlier this year to provide equal prize money and support for the women, it looks like there are great inroads being made to addressing the imbalance between males and females in the world of professional racing.
“The only cycling event in the world where women are not second best,” said Guy of the Women’s Tour.
SweetSpot have also stated their intention to ensure excellent media coverage of the event, another boost to women’s professional cycling.
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.
Although we know the location of the first stage, including the Grand Depart, details of the exact route and remaining stages are yet to be confirmed.
Total Women’s Cycling will keep you up to date with all announcements on The Women’s Tour as and when it is released.
It looks like 2014 is going to be a phenomenal year for road cycling in the UK, as Britain will host some of the world’s best women riders. We can’t wait to report on all of the action.
