News: Women’s Tour Finishes in Suffolk

The world’s top women cyclists will return to Suffolk this June as the county hosts the final stage of The Women’s Tour on Saturday 13 June.

News: Women’s Tour Finishes in Suffolk

The world’s top cyclists will return to Suffolk this June as the county hosts the final stage of The Women’s Tour on Saturday 13 June.

It will be the first time that Suffolk has hosted the final stage of The Women’s Tour since 2014, with riders tackling a route from Haverhill to Felixstowe. To mark the announcement, organisers joined Suffolk partners at the Port of Felixstowe, the UK’s biggest and busiest container port, and one of the largest in Europe, which will feature in the closing kilometres of the 2020 race.

Women’s Tour Race Director Mick Bennett joined professional cyclist Sophie Wright of the Bigla Katusha team and officials from Suffolk County Council and East Suffolk Council visited the Cosco Shipping Star, one of the world’s largest container ships, in the Port of Felixstowe.

The news comes as organisers SweetSpot announce the first details of the seventh edition of The Women’s Tour, which will take place from Monday 8 to Saturday 13 June 2020 and is the UK’s only round of the UCI Women’s WorldTour in 2020. The event, which is currently without a title partner for the event, was described in December by analysts Nielsen Sports as “the most globally recognised brand or event of the UCI Women’s WorldTour.”

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Since 2014, The Women’s Tour has covered more than 560 kilometres of racing in Suffolk, with the county hosting the opening stage of the race in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019, as well as the final stage of the first edition in 2014. The six stages during that period (in 2014 two stages of the race visited Suffolk) have seen over 250,000 spectators cheer on the riders at the roadside in the county, with a net economic impact since 2014 of in excess of £5.3m for the Suffolk economy.

This will be the first time that Haverhill has hosted The Women’s Tour, while Felixstowe last hosted the race in 2014, when Stage Three began in the East Suffolk town. In addition to Suffolk County Council and East Suffolk Council, the stage is also supported by local sponsors Palmer Group and Vertas Group, and West Suffolk Council and Babergh & Mid Suffolk Council. More details of the 2020 Women’s Tour route will be announced in the coming weeks as well as further information about the route of the Suffolk stage of the race.