Virtual Women’s Tour announced

This June will see the Women’s Tour back in action as an eRace on a virtual stage thanks to RGT Cycling and Women’s Tour organisers SweetSpot

Virtual Women’s Tour announced

This June will see the Women’s Tour back in action as an eRace on a virtual stage thanks to RGT Cycling and Women’s Tour organisers SweetSpot. Taking place between Wednesday 17 and Friday 19 June, riders and teams from across the world will race it out over three stages on the RGT Cycling virtual platform, in the new ŠKODA V-SERIES Women’s Tour event.

Named the ‘V-SERIES’ as a nod to the virtual racing scene, the V-SERIES is a stand-alone event to the real-world road racing Women’s Tour event. All the action will be broadcast live and streamed online on a variety of platforms, with racing getting underway at 19:00 BST each evening, featuring some of the world’s leading teams including Bigla Katusha; Bizkaia Durango; Boels Dolmans Cycling Team; CAMS Tifosi; Cogeas Mettler Look Pro Cycling; Drops; FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope; Great Britain; Hitec Products Birk Sport; Lotto Soudal Ladies; Rally Cycling; Storey Racing; Team Breeze; Team TIBCO Silicon Valley Bank; and Trek-Segafredo all competing for victory.

Members of the public will also have the chance to ride the three routes with a suggested donation of £5 to raise money for Breast Cancer Now and Mind. Organisers have chosen two classic stages from the past six editions of the Women’s Tour, with riders first facing the final 38.4 kilometres of the 2014 stage to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, as won by Marianne Vos in a bunch sprint.

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The second leg will replicate the finishing circuit from 2019’s hill top finish at Burton Dassett in Warwickshire, with three ascents of the 1.7 kilometre climb that averages 4.9% during the 35.7 kilometre race, which was won last June by Kasia Niewiadoma and also featured in the men’s Tour of Britain. Both of these stages will be raced on RGT Cycling’s ‘Magic Roads’ software which has allowed event organisers to utilise GPX files to simulate the routes and profiles.

The final stage will take place around 35-laps of the world-famous business district of Canary Wharf, London that is one of RGT Cycling’s ultra-realistic Real Roads. Riders will race on the one kilometre circuit that featured in a number of editions of the Tour Series, ensuring a fast paced finale to the inaugural V-SERIES Women’s Tour.

The races will be broadcast live via the Women’s Tour website and YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/thetourcycling) as well as the We Love Cycling YouTube channel with further channels and platforms to be announced.