842 days after Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) won the last edition of the race, the AJ Bell Women’s Tour returns to the road today (Monday 4 October).
Two days after her historic victory in the first ever women’s Paris Roubaix, Lizzie Deignan heads the start list as the race gets underway in Oxfordshire with a 147.7-kilometre (91.8-mile) stage between Bicester and Banbury.
In total 16 different nationalities are represented on the start line in the 89-rider field. Britain is the most represented nation with 24 riders in the peloton.
A trio of riders – Hannah Barnes (Canyon SRAM Racing), Leah Kirchmann (Team DSM), and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) – will be competing in their seventh edition of the AJ Bell Women’s Tour, having started and finished all six editions to date.
This year’s AJ Bell Women’s Tour features its first-ever individual time trial, taking place in Atherstone on stage three (Wednesday 6 October), with the overall champion set to be crowned in Felixstowe on Saturday (9 October).
Double AJ Bell Women’s Tour stage winner Sarah Roy (Team BikeExchange) said “VeloViewer has been great to see what the courses will be like this year. The stages look like it will be really fun and interesting racing across the whole week and the terrain really suits our team.
“I like that there’s a ‘short’ time trial this year as well. It’ll really sort out the GC which can open the racing up a bit differently for non-time trial riders. It’s also been a special year with the Olympics and the first time we’ve had a really popular, strong stage race after the World Championships. I expect to see some great racing though, our peloton is relentless.”
The AJ Bell Women’s Tour is sponsored by AJ Bell, one of the UK’s leading online investment platforms. It has a history of supporting elite level sport including badminton, cricket, rugby, squash and triathlon, and recently sponsored the men’s AJ Bell Tour of Britain in September, won by Wout van Aert.
Created by SweetSpot Group in 2014, the AJ Bell Women’s Tour is the UK’s first international stage race for women, bringing the world’s top riders to compete in Great Britain as a part of the UCI Women’s WorldTour.
AJ Bell Women’s Tour, competing teams:
- UCI Women’s World Teams: Alé BTC Ljubljana, Canyon SRAM Racing, FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope, Liv Racing, Movistar Team, SD Worx, Team BikeExchange, Team DSM, Trek-Segafredo
- UCI Women’s Continental Teams: AWOL O’Shea, CAMS-Basso Bikes, Drops-Le Col s/b TEMPUR., Parkhotel Valkenburg, Team Coop – Hitec Products, Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank, Valcar-Travel & Service
