AJ Bell Women's Cycling Tour 2021: Provisional rider list and road closures announced
The six-stage tour will feature three Tokyo 2020 Olympic medallists
The 2021 AJ Bell Women's Cycling Tour starts Monday 4 October with Tokyo 2020 Olympic medallists and international champions set to compete.
The 2021 tour, which is taking place for the first time in over two years, will see some of the best female cyclists in the world race in six stages over seven days.
What is the AJ Bell Women's Tour?
The AJ Bell Women's Tour is Britain's most prestigious women's cycling race.
It's the UK's first international stage race for Women, bringing the world's leading riders together to compete in Great Britain as part of the UCI Women's World Tour.
The race has grown in popularity since its creation in 2014 and now attracts an annual roadside audience of 300,000, while over three million fans follow on TV and online.
Some of the past winners of the tour are Marianne Vos (2014), Lizzie Deignan (2016, 2019) and Coryn Rivera (2018).
Who is competing?
The race will feature a star-studded line up of cyclists, with international champions and Olympic medallists expected to compete.
Reigning road world champion Elisa Balsama and time trial world champion Ellen van Dijk are both competing in the six-day tour for the first time since 2016.
Italian rider Marta Bastianelli, Dutchwoman Chantal van den Broek-Blaak and home favourite Lizzie Deignan, who have all previously been world road champion, will also be racing.
Lizzie Deignan is the race's defending champion from 2019 and the only competitor to win the AJ Bell Women's Tour twice.
The tour will also feature Tokyo 2020 medallists Elisa Longo Borghini, Marlen Reusser, and Megan Jastrab.
The provisional starting list of riders can be viewed here.
Where are the different stages?
The 2021 AJ Bell Women's tour will kick off in Oxfordshire, before riders travel across the West Midlands and into the final three stages along the south-east coast.
The tour, taking place from 4 October - 9 October, will span six stages:
- Stage One: Monday 4 October Bicester to Banbury 147.6km
- Stage Two: Tuesday 5 October Walsall to Walsall 103km
- Stage Three: Wednesday 6 October Atherstone individual time trial 16.6km
- Stage Four: Thursday 7 October Shoeburyness to Southend-on-Sea 117.5km
- Stage Five: Friday 8 October Colchester to Clacton-on-Sea 95.3km
- Stage Six: Saturday 9 October Haverhill to Felixstowe 155km
What roads will be closed?
With the 2021 AJ Bell Women’s Tour taking place in and around historic town centres and residential routes, there will be a series of rolling and fixed road closures.
Details of every road closure can be found via the local council websites of the areas affected by the tour, and can be viewed here.