The OVO Energy Women’s Tour, Britain’s most prestigious women’s cycle race, will reach new heights for its sixth edition in June.
Boasting a roll call of former champions including the likes of British world champion Lizzie Deignan and arguably the greatest rider of all time, Marianne Vos, the Women’s Tour expands from five to six days in 2019, features its first stages in Kent and Oxfordshire, a hill-top finish in Warwickshire and the hardest two stages in race history in the Welsh counties of Powys and Carmarthenshire!
Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) and Vos (CCC-Liv Team) are both expected to be on the start line in Suffolk on Monday 10 June, as a field featuring Olympic, world and national champions – not to mention the world’s top 15 teams and the British Drops squad – battle it out for the OVO Energy green jersey.
Can Team Sunweb’s Coryn Rivera, the first non-European rider to win the race, defend her title in 2019? Will the likes of Olympic champion Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans), 2017 champion Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM) or even rising star of the sport Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Bigla Pro Cycling) be in contention to add their name to a prestigious list of former winners?
This year’s route may be the hardest for the riders, but it’s also the most spectator friendly! The Kent Cyclopark, Gravesend stage on Tuesday 11 June comprises 25 laps of a 2.5km circuit, ensuring fans get multiple viewings of the peloton! Stage three in Oxfordshire will finish at the stunning Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, while fans watching on the finish line of the hill-top finish at Burton Dassett Country Park will catch three sightings of the riders
The sting in the tail comes on days five and six of the race, as Wales hosts two stages of the tour for the first time. Stage five between Llandrindod Wells and Builth Wells will see the riders climb more than 2,200 metres in total altitude, making it harder than a Tour de France mountain! There’s no room for premature celebrating, either, as stage six between Carmarthen and Pembrey Country Park features gruelling, undulating terrain from start to finish!
Visit womenstour.co.uk for more details of the 2019 OVO Energy Women’s Tour, including route maps and detailed timetables of daily activities, as well as information on the international teams and riders competing in this year’s race.
Don’t miss our daily online live stage blogs, and catch up with the action from each day’s racing with our nightly hour-long highlights show on ITV4.
STAGES
STAGE ONE
Beccles to Stowmarket (157.6km)
Monday 10 June
STAGE TWO
The Kent Cyclopark, Gravesend Stage (62.5km)
Tuesday 11 June
STAGE THREE
Henley-on-Thames to Blenheim Palace (145.1km)
Wednesday 12 June
STAGE FOUR
Warwick to Burton Dassett Country Park (158.9km)
Thursday 13 June
STAGE FIVE
Llandrindod Wells to Builth Wells (140km)
Friday 14 June
STAGE SIX
Carmarthen to Pembrey Country Park (126km)
Saturday 15 June
