News: Women’s Tour Penultimate Stage

Colchester and Clacton will host the penultimate stage of the Women’s Tour as the world’s top cyclists get set to race from the historic castle town to the English coast on Friday 8 October*.

News: Women’s Tour Penultimate Stage

Colchester and Clacton will host the penultimate stage of the Women’s Tour as the world’s top cyclists get set to race from the historic castle town to the English coast on Friday 8 October*.

Today’s announcement by SweetSpot Group, the award-winning company behind the Women’s Tour, has been timed to coincide with International Women’s Day which calls on everyone to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements.

Stage five will mark the first time that Colchester welcomes the Women’s Tour, which forms a part of the prestigious UCI Women’s WorldTour series, although the town’s notable links to cycling include hosting a Tour of Britain stage finish (2010) and four rounds of the Tour Series.

The stage will proudly showcase Colchester’s Northern Gateway Sports Park, the new, 76-acre, multi-use venue that includes a one-mile, closed-road cycling circuit. In a two-year agreement with race organisers SweetSpot, Colchester will also host the start of Grand Départ of next year’s race in June 2022.

Meanwhile, this stage represents the third finish in Clacton since the race’s inaugural 2014 edition. Marianne Vos, the Women’s Tour first-ever champion, won along the seaside resort’s promenade seven years ago, before Belgian Jolien D’hoore triumphed there in 2015. The latter stage generated a net economic impact of over £1.3m for the local economy.

This year Clacton is celebrating its 150th anniversary with a series of events and activities planned around the town, while there are high hopes other regular events can return in line with the government’s roadmap. People can keep up to date by downloading the free Love Tendring app. The full route of this stage, including SKODA Queen of the Mountains and sprints locations, will be revealed in due course.

The Women’s Tour, which forms a part of the prestigious UCI Women’s WorldTour, will start in Oxfordshire at Bicester and finish with a stage from Haverhill to Felixstowe in Suffolk. SweetSpot will announce full details of the penultimate stage and the 2021 route in the summer once alternative dates of Monday 4 to Saturday 9 October* are confirmed.