Women's Tour to make history
THE Ovo Energy Women’s Tour’s fourth visit to Warwickshire in as many years will be celebrated with Burton Dassett Country Park hosting the first hill-top finish in race history on Thursday, 13th June.
Stage four of Britain’s most prestigious women’s race goes around Shakespeare’s country and will take on a feel similar to that of the Belgian one-day spring classics as the world’s best riders tackle three laps of a challenging 12.6km circuit to culminate a spectator-friendly day of racing that begins in Warwick.
Whereas the Women’s Tour’s three previous visits to the county – raced into Stratford-upon-Avon (2016) and Royal Leamington Spa (2017 and 2018) – have ended in sprint finishes, this year’s 158.9km test promises to play a crucial part in deciding who will win the Ovo Energy green jersey.
Upon leaving Warwick, the race’s star-studded field will pass through the University of Warwick, Kenilworth, Meriden, Bedworth and Wellesbourne as it gears up for what promises to be an unpredictable finale.
Riders will climb Edge Hill, an Ovo Energy Women’s Tour regular, albeit from its south-westerly approach for the first time before beginning three laps of a clockwise finishing circuit around Burton Dassett and Farnborough.
Featuring a gradient of 15 per cent in places, and averaging 4.9 per cent, the 1.7km climb through Burton Dassett Country Park has split the peloton into several groups during its previous inclusions in the race.
The climb was also a Skoda King of the Mountains ascent in last year’s Ovo Energy Tour of Britain.
In total, stage four of this year’s Ovo Energy Women’s Tour includes 1,513m of climbing.
The 2019 Ovo Energy Women’s Tour will take place over six days for the first time in event history.
Suffolk will host the Grand Depart of the sixth edition on Monday, 10th June before Oxfordshire welcomes the race for the first time two days later with a stage that culminates at the historic Blenheim Palace.
The race continues to form part of the prestigious UCI Women’s World Tour series, which began with the Strade Bianche one-day event in Italy on Saturday, 9th March.
