The final stage route details for the 2022 Women’s Tour stages have been revealed today, with organisers Sweetspot announcing that stage 2 will run from Harlow to Harlow.
With this final piece of the stage details jigsaw in place, we provide a rundown of what we know so far about the Women’s Tour route, which will begin in Colchester on Monday 6 June.
Stage overview
Stage
Date
Start-finish locations
1
Mon 6 Jun
Colchester – Bury St Edmunds
2
Tues 7 Jun
Harlow – Harlow
3
Wed 8 Jun
Tewkesbury – Gloucester
4
Thu 9 Jun
Wrexham – Welshpool
5
Fri 10 Jun
Pembrey Country Park – Black Mountain
6
Sat 11 Jun
Chipping Norton – Oxford
Stage 1 | Monday 6 June | Colchester – Bury St Edmunds
This year’s Women’s Tour will begin in the historic town of Colchester, which previously hosted a stage start in the 2021 race, on Monday 6 June. The peloton will again set off from the Colchester Sports Park at Northern Gateway, the town’s acclaimed new multi-sport facility that features a closed road cycle circuit.
Stage one will then head into Colchester town centre and through the wider borough before crossing into Suffolk and towards the finish line on Angel Hill in Bury St Edmunds. This will mark the cathedral town’s third appearance in race history, although it will be the first finish there since Marianne Vos won the finale of the 2014 edition.
At 141.8km, the stage is one of three stages over 140km in length (the others being stages 4 and 6).
Stage 2 | Tuesday 7 June | Harlow – Harlow
Stage 2 visits Harlow on Tuesday 7 June to help celebrate the town’s 75th birthday.
Measuring 96.4 kilometres, it will both start and finish in the town. Harlow Innovation Park will host the stage start. The route will then take riders north east through Hatfield Heath to Great Dunmow for the opening intermediate sprint of the stage, and on through Felsted, High Easter (location of the second intermediate sprint), and Roxwell.
The route then returns to Harlow via Chipping Ongar and a pair of ŠKODA Queen of the Mountains climbs at Toot Hill and Epping. The stage will finish along Third Avenue, a short distance away from Harlow town centre.
Stage 3 | Wednesday 8 June | Tewkesbury – Gloucester
The Women’s Tour’s first-ever stage in the picturesque county of Gloucestershire will come on stage three of the 2022 race.
Running from Tewkesbury to Gloucester, it should be a spectator-friendly stage, allowing nimble-footed fans to see the race from more than one vantage point. The route will heads west from Tewkesbury into the Forest of Dean, before finishing in the heart of the cathedral city by Gloucester Docks, close enough together that spectators could attend both the start and finish.
The organisers say that the stage “will play a key role in deciding who is crowned this year’s overall champion”, although we have no details beyond that at the time of writing about how demanding the route is.
Stage 4 | Thursday 9 June | Wrexham – Welshpool
Wrexham and Welshpool will play host to a stage of the Women’s Tour for the first time on stage 4, a stage that will take the riders through the heart of mid Wales, including what looks to be a diversion towards the edge of the Snowdonia National Park.
Wrexham last hosted elite cycling when the opening stage of the men’s Tour of Britain finished in the town in 2015, with this year’s stage set to play a part in supporting Wrexham’s bid to be crowned UK City of Culture 2025.
Powys has once before hosted a stage finish of the Women’s Tour at Builth Wells in 2019, while the men’s Tour of Britain has visited the county on six occasions between 2010 and 2016.
Stage 5 | Friday 10 June | Pembrey Country Park – Black Mountain
The battle to succeed Dutch rider Demi Vollering as Women’s Tour champion could be decided as the race returns to the Welsh county of Carmarthenshire for the second time in three editions on stage five.
While riders will roll out from sea level at Pembrey Country Park, host of the 2019 finale, the day’s finish line comes atop Black Mountain near Llangadog.
This will be the second hill-top finish in Women’s Tour history, although this one is significantly harder than that at Burton Dassett Country Park, which featured in the 2019 race.
Measuring 7.2 kilometres in length, Black Mountain averages a gradient of 5.3% with a maximum gradient of 9.3% according to VeloViewer. It was previously tackled during the final stage of the 2019 race. Illi Gardner is the current QOM holder, completing it in a time of 19 minutes and 7 seconds.
The 2022 Women’s Tour will end with a spectacular Oxfordshire finale in June, with stage six taking place between Chipping Norton and Oxford city centre.
As part of race organiser SweetSpot’s three-year partnership with Oxfordshire County Council, alongside the county’s city and district councils, this stage will visit parts of the county that did not feature in previous stages.
Neither Chipping Norton, the county’s highest town, or Oxford have hosted a stage start or finish of the race to date, although the world’s best riders did pass through the historic city’s eastern side during last year’s stage from Bicester to Banbury.
Highlights of this year’s race will once again be shown on ITV4 in the UK, and around the world via Eurosport and GCN. Women’s Tour organisers SweetSpot continue to work on securing the funding required to broadcast the event live.
Featured image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com – 15/06/2019 – Cycling – OVO Energy Women’s Tour, Stage 6: Carmarthen to Pembrey Country Park – The peloton travel up Black Mountain.
The final stage route details for the 2022 Women’s Tour stages have been revealed today, with organisers Sweetspot announcing that stage 2 will run from Harlow to Harlow.
With this final piece of the stage details jigsaw in place, we provide a rundown of what we know so far about the Women’s Tour route, which will begin in Colchester on Monday 6 June.
Stage overview
Stage 1 | Monday 6 June | Colchester – Bury St Edmunds
This year’s Women’s Tour will begin in the historic town of Colchester, which previously hosted a stage start in the 2021 race, on Monday 6 June. The peloton will again set off from the Colchester Sports Park at Northern Gateway, the town’s acclaimed new multi-sport facility that features a closed road cycle circuit.
Stage one will then head into Colchester town centre and through the wider borough before crossing into Suffolk and towards the finish line on Angel Hill in Bury St Edmunds. This will mark the cathedral town’s third appearance in race history, although it will be the first finish there since Marianne Vos won the finale of the 2014 edition.
At 141.8km, the stage is one of three stages over 140km in length (the others being stages 4 and 6).
Stage 2 | Tuesday 7 June | Harlow – Harlow
Stage 2 visits Harlow on Tuesday 7 June to help celebrate the town’s 75th birthday.
Measuring 96.4 kilometres, it will both start and finish in the town. Harlow Innovation Park will host the stage start. The route will then take riders north east through Hatfield Heath to Great Dunmow for the opening intermediate sprint of the stage, and on through Felsted, High Easter (location of the second intermediate sprint), and Roxwell.
The route then returns to Harlow via Chipping Ongar and a pair of ŠKODA Queen of the Mountains climbs at Toot Hill and Epping. The stage will finish along Third Avenue, a short distance away from Harlow town centre.
Stage 3 | Wednesday 8 June | Tewkesbury – Gloucester
The Women’s Tour’s first-ever stage in the picturesque county of Gloucestershire will come on stage three of the 2022 race.
Running from Tewkesbury to Gloucester, it should be a spectator-friendly stage, allowing nimble-footed fans to see the race from more than one vantage point. The route will heads west from Tewkesbury into the Forest of Dean, before finishing in the heart of the cathedral city by Gloucester Docks, close enough together that spectators could attend both the start and finish.
The organisers say that the stage “will play a key role in deciding who is crowned this year’s overall champion”, although we have no details beyond that at the time of writing about how demanding the route is.
Stage 4 | Thursday 9 June | Wrexham – Welshpool
Wrexham and Welshpool will play host to a stage of the Women’s Tour for the first time on stage 4, a stage that will take the riders through the heart of mid Wales, including what looks to be a diversion towards the edge of the Snowdonia National Park.
Wrexham last hosted elite cycling when the opening stage of the men’s Tour of Britain finished in the town in 2015, with this year’s stage set to play a part in supporting Wrexham’s bid to be crowned UK City of Culture 2025.
Powys has once before hosted a stage finish of the Women’s Tour at Builth Wells in 2019, while the men’s Tour of Britain has visited the county on six occasions between 2010 and 2016.
Stage 5 | Friday 10 June | Pembrey Country Park – Black Mountain
The battle to succeed Dutch rider Demi Vollering as Women’s Tour champion could be decided as the race returns to the Welsh county of Carmarthenshire for the second time in three editions on stage five.
While riders will roll out from sea level at Pembrey Country Park, host of the 2019 finale, the day’s finish line comes atop Black Mountain near Llangadog.
This will be the second hill-top finish in Women’s Tour history, although this one is significantly harder than that at Burton Dassett Country Park, which featured in the 2019 race.
Measuring 7.2 kilometres in length, Black Mountain averages a gradient of 5.3% with a maximum gradient of 9.3% according to VeloViewer. It was previously tackled during the final stage of the 2019 race. Illi Gardner is the current QOM holder, completing it in a time of 19 minutes and 7 seconds.
Stage 6 | Saturday 11 June | Chipping Norton – Oxford
The 2022 Women’s Tour will end with a spectacular Oxfordshire finale in June, with stage six taking place between Chipping Norton and Oxford city centre.
As part of race organiser SweetSpot’s three-year partnership with Oxfordshire County Council, alongside the county’s city and district councils, this stage will visit parts of the county that did not feature in previous stages.
Neither Chipping Norton, the county’s highest town, or Oxford have hosted a stage start or finish of the race to date, although the world’s best riders did pass through the historic city’s eastern side during last year’s stage from Bicester to Banbury.
Highlights of this year’s race will once again be shown on ITV4 in the UK, and around the world via Eurosport and GCN. Women’s Tour organisers SweetSpot continue to work on securing the funding required to broadcast the event live.
Featured image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com – 15/06/2019 – Cycling – OVO Energy Women’s Tour, Stage 6: Carmarthen to Pembrey Country Park – The peloton travel up Black Mountain.
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