It’s safe to say that news of the Women’s Tour’s first-ever individual time trial stage, set to take place in Atherstone, North Warwickshire on day three of the 2021 race, went down a treat last week!

Seven days on from our big reveal, we’ve taken a look at the best reactions that followed us unveiling our 10-mile/16-kilometre stage that could well decide the winner of this year’s race.

Anna van der Breggen, SD Worx rider and reigning world time trial champion, said: “It’s great that the Women’s Tour has added an individual time trial! Unfortunately, there are not that many individual time trials anymore in our race calendar, now riders can measure themselves in this discipline with the other specialists.”

CAMS-Tifosi rider Hayley Simmonds, who holds the British 10-mile time trial record (a stunning 18’36” set in September 2016), took to Twitter to express her joy.

Joss Lowden, who formed part of Great Britain’s bronze-medal winning Mixed Relay TTT team at the Yorkshire world championships in 2019, also took to social media to post her feelings.

Annemiek van Vleuten, Movistar Team rider and two-time world time trial champion, said: “This news makes me really happy! Time trialling is an important part of cycling – it is a Olympic discipline – but we don’t have many opportunities to ride them, so I’m really excited that the Women’s Tour has added one! This type of stage is good for me – but it’s also good for the future of cycling: younger athletes can learn so much by doing them.

“The Women’s Tour is such a great event – I still get goosebumps when I think about how many schoolchildren line the side of the roads. I hope that this is the case once again in October!”

Three-time Canadian time trial champion Leah Kirchman, a regular participant at the Women’s Tour, said:

Iris Slappendel, the executive director of the fantastic Cyclists’ Alliance, said: 

This stage is set to be the first individual time trial held after the UCI World Championships in Flanders, Belgium, meaning British fans could get to see the newly-crowned world champion tackle the route in the legendary rainbow jersey.

More details of stage three – including the full route and timetables – will be announced in due course.