Equality at last! Women line up for tour de force

Fifth edition of race starts in Suffolk today with a world-class line-up and prize money to match the men,

The race is a catalyst for much-needed change and it continues to set the benchmark for women’s pro cycling

When the inaugural Women’s Tour began in Oundle, Northamptonshire in May 2014 it is fair to say there was an element of uncertainty in the air.

Only a few weeks earlier, organiser Sweetspot had been scrabbling around for a title sponsor while during the week of the race itself the eyes of the cycling world – at least the established pro cycling world – were firmly trained on Northern Ireland, where the Giro d’italia grande partenza was in the process of turning Belfast pink.

Five days later, after Marianne Vos, the reigning Olympic champion, had wrapped up a dominant victory with her third stage win on the trot, in front of huge crowds in Bury St Edmunds, any doubts that the race might have a future had been well and truly erased.

“I’m sure there is no other race that can match the organisation, the attention [women’s cycling] gets here now,” Vos said in her postrace press conference. “All week we had big crowds, with schoolchildren out despite the rain. This weekend I think everyone was on the streets.

“Bury St Edmunds was amazing. To see the podium fully crowded – it brings back memories of other big championships; world championships, Olympic Games. I get the feeling that Britain is one of the leading cycling countries now.”

Those were not mere platitudes. Vos’s thoughts were echoed by almost every rider in that inaugural race. Never before had a women’s stage race seen spectators turn up in such huge numbers – or its participants been treated with such professionalism.

Even in that first year the race was being held up as a shining example of what was possible for a sport which had struggled – which still struggles – to gain anything like the same exposure or attention as its male equivalent.

Fast forward four years and the Women’s Tour has gone from strength to strength. The vision, in particular of Sweetspot chairman Hugh Roberts, race director Mick Bennett and controller Guy Elliott has been emphatically vindicated, with each edition an improvement on the previous one. The parcours has got progressively more demanding as the depth of talent in women’s cycling has deepened; dedicated coverage on free-to-air television has proved a hit with fans and riders alike; this year, for the first time in a women’s cycling race, sponsors OVO Energy has increased the prize pot to match the men’s Tour of Britain; a growing list of sponsors and partners are getting involved.

A Tour Ride sportive, inspired by stage one of the 2018 OVO Energy Women’s Tour in Suffolk and supporting Breast Cancer Care, will take place on July 1.

This year’s race promises to be the most competitive edition yet, with a world-class field assembled for a race which covers more – and more challenging – terrain than ever before. If there was a weakness with those first few editions it was that they were fairly predictable. In 2014 almost every stage ended in a bunch sprint as Sweetspot – naturally enough – erred on the side of caution, afraid to break the race up too much.

This year, with some tough-looking climbs from stage two onwards, in particular a challenging final stage through Snowdonia to Colwyn Bay, it is harder to predict how things will pan out.

Former winners Vos (Waowdeals Pro Cycling), Lisa Brennauer (Wiggle High5), and last year’s champion Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-sram) are all present and correct, and all will have high hopes of repeating their past successes. Christine Majerus (Boels-dolmans) always seems to go well in this race.

As for the British contingent, there is no shortage of riders to watch.

With Lizzie Deignan, winner in 2016, off having a baby, the opportunity is there for others to make a name for themselves. Hannah and Alice Barnes, team-mates of Niewiadoma (below) at Canyon-sram, finished third and sixth respec

tively last year; 2012 Olympic champion Dani Rowe (Waowdeals Pro Cycling) is becoming more and more competitive on the road having switched full-time a couple of years back, while world and Olympic track champion Katie Archibald (Wiggle

High5) is capable of riding anyone off her wheel.

With its combination of huge crowds, a worldclass field, equal

prize money and

dedicated television coverage, the OVO Energy Women’s Tour continues to set the benchmark for women’s professional cycling; a catalyst for muchneeded change.

Sweetspot still has one or two tricks up its sleeve.

There has been

talk of making the race even bigger in the coming years, potentially by increasing its length from five to seven days or even by introducing a foreign grand depart.

It would be good to see race organisers in some of cycling’s more established territories show even half that ambition.