The Women’s Tour won’t go ahead this year due to increased running costs and a lack of sponsorship, race organisers SweetSpot have announced.
The five-stage race route for June was announced earlier this month with a call for sponsorship funding, while SweetSpot also started a crowdfunding campaign to fill the financial gap.
The campaign has raised £18,000 of a target £100,000 so far, but with a lack of a title sponsor for the race and three of the four jerseys also without sponsorship, it has proven too big a hurdle to overcome to run the race this season.
“Owing to a combination of increased running costs (approximately 20% higher in comparison to the 2022 race) and a reduced level of commercial support, it has proved impossible to deliver the event that was proposed for June,” SweetSpot announced on Friday morning, stating that the race will take a “one-year hiatus”.
Over 500 fans who contributed to the crowdfunding campaign will receive refunds, while SweetSpot will begin work on planning for the 2024 edition of the race.
“The Women’s Tour thanks everybody who donated for their unwavering loyalty, as well as all the messages of goodwill that have been sent. A refund process, overseen by the GoFundMe platform, has begun.
“Organisers are already working on plans for next year’s edition, which will mark the 10th anniversary of the first Women’s Tour. Wales will host the event’s Grand Départ for the first time as part of a long-term agreement already in place with the Welsh Government.”
The race was due to start this year in Stratford-upon-Avon on June 7, taking in stages at Northampton, Guisborough, and Derby before a closing circuit race in Birmingham on June 11.
Previous title sponsors of the race have included Friends Life, Aviva, Ovo, and AJ Bell, though last year’s race took place without a title sponsor.
Cottages.com, Brother UK, Accurist, and CycleGuard were on board as sponsors of the 2023 race, though Skoda pulled out of supplying vehicles for the race as well as the men’s Tour of Britain, while jersey sponsorships and stage partnership packages also remained unfilled.
The cancellation of the race won in the past by Marianne Vos, Lizzie Deignan, Demi Vollering, and Elisa Longo Borghini, among others, leaves a gap in the Women’s WorldTour calendar, while it’s also another body blow for the domestic racing scene in Britain.
In February, SweetSpot announced that the long-running annual criterium series, the Tour Series, wouldn’t take place in 2023,…
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