Top British races unveil route details

The shape of the Tour of Britain and the Women’s Tour became clearer this week as more locations for stage starts and finishes were announced. The Tour of Britain will take place from 5 to 12 September, while the Women’s Tour has been moved back from its usual spring slot due to the pandemic and will run from 4 to 9 October.

The Women’s Tour’s new place in the calendar means it could well be the place that sees the first outing of the rainbow stripes of the new world champions. The women’s race will start in Bicester and run to Banbury in Oxfordshire on stage one. Stage two will explore the countryside around Walsall in the West Midlands. That will be followed by an individual time trial around Atherstone, Warwickshire. Organiser Sweetspot is still looking for a host for stage four, which isn’t able to run in the planned location due to the rescheduling. Stage five will run between Colchester and Clacton in Essex and the final stage six will go through Suffolk from Haverhill to Felixstowe.

The Tour of Britain meanwhile starts in Cornwall and makes its way up to Scotland over eight stages. It will kick off with a stage between Penzance and Bodmin, then transition to Devon for a stage between Sherford and Exeter. It then heads to Wales for two stages, the details of which are yet to be confirmed. Stage five will run from an unknown location in Cheshire to Warrington, followed by a stage from a yet-to-be-announced town in Cumbria to Gateshead. The seventh day will go from Hawick on the Scottish borders to Edinburgh and the final stage will run from Stonehaven to Aberdeen.