The Women’s Tour, the UK’s leading women’s cycle race, has today issued a renewed appeal in its efforts to deliver a live broadcast of this year’s race (Monday 6 – Saturday 11 June).

Organisers SweetSpot are hopeful of raising a minimum of £75,000 towards the costs for the first-ever live broadcast of the event. The eighth edition of the race, which starts in Colchester and finishes in the heart of historic Oxford six days later, will notably feature the Women’s Tour’s toughest-ever summit finish atop Black Mountain in Carmarthenshire.

This year’s race will feature all 14 of the top division UCI Women’s WorldTeams and the best of British – CAMS – Basso and Le Col – Wahoo – as part of the largest field in event history to date.

The race has been seeking funding to deliver a live broadcast of the event since UCI Women’s WorldTour rules were updated for the 2020 season. Adding a live broadcast increases the Women’s Tour’s overheads by approximately 20%: a sum far from inconsequential given that we are only two years removed from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the enforced cancellation of the 2020 race. Combined with the impact restrictions had on organising events in the UK last year, SweetSpot missed out on a year-and-a-half of revenue as a result.

Existing broadcast partners – ITV in the UK, Eurosport and GCN worldwide – have been extremely supportive in the race’s efforts to increase its daily hour-long highlights programme offering to a flag-to-flag live broadcast.

Nonetheless, efforts to secure a title sponsor for the Women’s Tour have so far proved unsuccessful. As it stands, the 2022 race will be the first in event history to be without a naming rights partner.

Despite a pro-active approach by the organisers, and discussions aplenty for well over a year,  there is still a funding shortfall. Any company looking at being forever linked to helping the Women’s Tour achieve this important milestone can take advantage of a new partnership package offering sponsorship rights for any live TV broadcast. Find out more information at sweetspotgroup.co.uk/partnerships.

The Women’s Tour’s roll of honour is among the most prestigious in cycling: Marianne Vos (2014), Lizzie Deignan (2016, 2019), Kasia Niewiadoma (2017) and Demi Vollering (2021) have all claimed overall glory since its inaugural edition. The race’s daily hour-long highlights programmes, which were watched by over four million people worldwide in 2021, will again be broadcast this year.