Women’s Tour 2014 highlights on ITV4

SOTB

12 years ago

Cycling history will be made from May 7-11 as the inaugural Friends Life Woman’s Tour takes place and ITV4 will screen daily highlights.

This is a landmark event for British women’s road cycling, which has been granted a place on the UCI calendar for a five-stage race featuring 16 female professional cycling teams from around the globe.

Following the success of the Women’s Johnson Health Tech series alongside the men’s Tour Series, which featured on ITV4 last year, alongside years of campaigning amongst some of women’s cycling’s biggest names, the first UK women’s team stage race was announced last year during the Tour of Britain’s tenth anniversary celebrations.

Organised by SweetSpot Group, the Women’s Tour will see the world’s top female cyclists racing on British roads against our Olympic heroines and top domestic stars across five stages every May.

The five stages take in the counties of Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Essex, beginning with a 94k ride from Oundle to Northampton on Wednesday, May 7, and concluding on Sunday, May 11 after a 108km stage to Bury St Edmunds.

This is home territory for United Healthcare’s Hannah Barnes, who will certainly attract local support but she faces some stiff competition from a plethora of big names in the sport.

Olympic champions Joanna Rowsell, Dani King and Laura Trott, who all became household names following their London 2012 performances, will be riding for British team Wiggle Honda, while Olympic silver medallist Lizzy Armitstead rides for Netherlands team Boels-Dolmans.

Fans will also be able to see two time British junior road world champion Lucy Garner and world champion Katie Archibald in action.

They will be joined by some of the world’s best women riders, including Olympic road race gold medallist Marianne Vos from the Netherlands, as they race across five stages eastern England.

ITV4 will be screening hour-long daily highlights during the 2014 Women’s Tour at 9.00pm every evening.

Ned Boulting will present coverage of each stage from the first ever British professional women’s race on the UCI calendar alongside respected women’s cycling broadcaster José Been, with Hugh Porter and Brian Smith on commentary duties.

All of ITV4’s highlights shows will be available to watch on all devices via catch-up service ITV Player.

British Eurosport will also broadcast hour-long nightly highlights shows throughout the event.

For more information on the 2014 Friends Life Women’s Tour, visit the official website.