Excitement builds for women’s tour as race heads to North Essex

With just three weeks to go until Britain’s premier female cycle race comes to north Essex, excitement is building along the route.

Stage 5 of the AJ Bell Women’s Tour takes place on Friday, 8 October, and will see the world’s top cyclists pedal the roads between Colchester and Clacton.

The route starts at Colchester’s Northern Gateway Sports Park, with riders completing a lap of the venue’s closed road cycle circuit before heading through the historic city centre and on into Tendring.

Passing through the finish line at Clacton seafront after 32km, the peloton will then complete at 63.5km loop around the district, in what is the shortest road stage of the 2021 race. For more details on the stage route visit www.womenstour.co.uk/stages/stage-5/.

Cllr Alex Porter, Tendring District Council Cabinet Member for Leisure and Tourism, said:

“There’s not long to go now, and we really hope that people come out to line the route from start to finish, to watch and enjoy this spectacle and hopefully be inspired to be active themselves.

“Earlier this month we saw the Tour of Britain, the men’s equivalent race, draw huge crowds out along each stage and I really hope that Colchester and Tendring residents, boosted by cycling fans from across the region, can rise to the occasion and match that to cheer on these elite athletes. So please start to think now about where you might come and watch the race.”

Cllr Paul Dundas, Leader of Colchester Borough Council, said:

“What a coup to bring the Women’s Tour to Colchester to showcase this historic town on the world stage. Colchester is hugely proud to support this global event and our ambitions for Stage 5 are to celebrate this fantastic part of Essex, attract thousands of visitors to the area, boost the local economy and encourage all of us to lead fitter, healthier lives.

“We look forward to seeing many residents and visitors coming along to cheer on the riders and get involved in the many free activities taking place at the Sports Park and in our High Street. Lockdown has taught us how important keeping active is to our physical and mental wellbeing, so this is a great opportunity to gain inspiration from some of the world’s most elite sports women.”

For more information about the Women’s Tour in general visit www.womenstour.co.uk.

About the Women’s Tour

Created by SweetSpot Group in 2014, the Women’s Tour is the UK’s first international stage race for women, bringing the world’s top riders to compete in Great Britain as a part of the UCI Women’s WorldTour.

The race, which has been won by the likes of Marianne Vos (2014), Lizzie Deignan (2016, 2019) and Coryn Rivera (2018), attracts an annual roadside audience of 300,000, as well as over three million fans through linear and online platforms.

The 2021 Women’s Tour

Stages

• Stage one Bicester to Banbury Monday 4 October
• Stage two Walsall Tuesday 5 October
• Stage three Atherstone individual time trial Wednesday 6 October
• Stage four Shoeburyness to Southend Thursday 7 October
• Stage five Colchester to Clacton Friday 8 October
• Stage six Haverhill to Felixstowe Saturday 9 October

Competing teams

• UCI Women’s World Teams: Alé BTC Ljubljana, Canyon SRAM Racing, FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope, Liv Racing, Movistar Team, SD Worx, Team BikeExchange, Team DSM, Trek-Segafredo
• UCI Women’s Continental Teams: AWOL O’Shea, CAMS-Basso Bikes, Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling, Drops-Le Col s/b TEMPUR., Parkhotel Valkenburg, Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank, Valcar-Travel & Service

Follow the Women’s Tour on Twitter (#WomensTour), Facebook, and Instagram or via the event’s official website at womenstour.co.uk.