The Women's Tour 2021: everything you need to know

The best riders in the women's peloton are set to be racing around the south east of England for the sixth edition of the Women's Tour including the first ever individual time trial in the race.

The 2021 Women's Tour will take place between October 4 and 9 with six stages. The prize fund was bumped up to equal the men's Tour of Britain with the original €35,000 (£31,000) increasing to €90,000 (£80,000).

In 2016 the race was given UCI Women's WorldTour which means it is part of the top-level group of international races with all of the biggest teams have to take part.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the last edition was won by Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) who took her first win since returning from her career break to have a baby.

Women's Tour 2021 route

The route for the 2021 Women's Tour has been fully announced with the race starting on October 4 in Bicester and take in the route planned for 2020 before it was cancelled.

Stage two takes in a loop around the town of Walsall before stage three and the first-ever time trial at the race, taking place around Atherstone in Warwickshire.

The fourth stage starts in Shoeburyness before finishing in the coastal town of Southend-on-Sea. The penultimate day of stage five has and its a trip to the Essex seaside with a stage from Colchester to Clacton.

Finally, the last stage is between Haverhill and Felixstowe with the Suffolk roads bringing the race to a close.

We will add stage profiles when they become available.

Women's Tour 2021 live TV

ITV4 is likely to be the place to watch live images as well as highlights in the UK with GCN+ and Eurosport potentially having pictures too.

Women's Tour 2021 start list

Trek-Segafredo 

DEIGNAN Lizzie

Alé-BTC-Ljubljana 

AWOL-O'Shea 

BROUGHTON Charlotte
BAYES Hannah

CAMS-Basso Bikes 

Canyon-SRAM Racing 

BARNES Hannah
BARNES Alice

Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling 

Drops-Le Col s/b Tempur 

LOWDEN Jos

FDJ Nouvella-Aquitaine Futuroscope 

Liv Racing 

KOPECKY Lotte

Movistar Team 

VAN VLEUTEN Annemiek

Parkhotel Valkenburg 

Team SD Worx 

Team BikeExchange 

Team DSM 

Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank 

Valcar-Travel & Service

Women's Tour 2021 jerseys

There will be five classifications available to compete for in 2021.

The star prize at the Women's Tour is the blue jersey, awarded to the leader of the General Classification. In 2019, this went to Lizzie Deignan when it was green.

Other honours include the Points jersey, with points going to the top 15 - this also went to Deignan in 2019. The Sprints jersey celebrates the leader of the intermediate sprints, which was also awarded to Rivera in the last edition.

The Queen of the Mountains jersey is awarded to the rider who takes the most points on designated climbs and the Best British rider gets a jersey to show their status. The best team is the final main award to fight for.

Women’s Tour: previous winners

2020: No race due to Covid-19 pandemic
2019: Lizzie Deignan (GBr) Trek-Segafredo
2018: Coryn Rivera (USA) Team Sunweb
2017: Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) WM3 Pro Cycling
2016: Lizzie Deignan (GBr) Boels-Dolmans
2015: Lisa Brennauer (Ger) Velocio-SRAM
2014: Marianne Vos (Ned) Rabobank-Liv Women Cycling Team