Route revealed for the 2024 Tour of Britain Women as four-day stage race returns to the calendar

After the race did not go ahead in 2023 due to a lack of funding, the route for the 2024 edition of the Tour of Britain Women (formerly known as the Women’s Tour) has now been revealed after British Cycling took over the organisation of the race from the now defunct Sweetspot went into liquidation.

Forming part of the Women’s WorldTour, the race will consist of four stages across England and Wales. The opening stage will take place on June 6th, starting in Welshpool on the Anglo-Welsh border and taking the riders to the seaside town of Llandudno, where we saw a thrilling finale in the men’s Tour of Britain three years ago, with Wout van Aert winning on the Great Orme climb.

Stage 2 will take the riders to Wrexham, with the stage starting and finishing in the North Welsh city, which has gained notoriety in recent years due to the high-profile owners of the local football club AFC Wrexham.

The race will then head into England on stage 3, as the riders will take on a stage around the town of Warrington, which also hosted a stage finish of the men’s race in 2021 and is located in the North West of the country between Manchester and Liverpool.

The final stage will take place around Manchester, which has hosted several stages of the men’s Tour of Britain over the years and is the home of the National Cycling Centre, which is the headquarters of British Cycling and hosted the track cycling events for the Commonwealth Games in 2002.

It is currently unclear which of the Women’s WorldTour teams will be in attendance at the race in June. However, speaking in Manchester on Monday, British Cycling CEO Jon Dutton said “we’ve invited and all six British UCI Continental teams have accepted, and we also have a very strong GB women’s team that will race, so it will be a real celebration of British women’s international elite road racing”.

Former World Road Race Champion Lizzie Deignan is set to lead the British national team at the race, as she said in reaction to the route that “I’m excited particularly about the harder races around Manchester, the hillier stuff, I think that’ll suit me and I’m excited to be able to race it with the GB team. Racing in Britain has always suited me because you have the home crowd, but also the terrain, wherever you are in the country, is relentless. People in the UK are brilliant sports fans and there’s this sense of excitement and thrill at being able to be part of a spectacle like a bike race”.