The Women's Tour is a women's cycle stage race held in England and Wales, as part of the UCI Women's World Tour. The race is organised by SweetSpot, the company behind the men's Tour of Britain. History Its origins trace back to 2010 when SweetSpot (the company behind the men's Tour of Britain) organised their first women's cycling race, the Horizon Fitness Grand Prix in Stoke-on-Trent. What began as a supporting event for the men's Tour Series – Britain's leading televised cycle race series – grew into a key part of the women's racing scene in Britain, thanks to television coverage on ITV4 in the UK and around the world. In 2018, Britain's leading women's teams took part in the whole series for the first time. At the launch of the 2013 Tour of Britain, SweetSpot MD Chairman Hugh Roberts and director Guy Elliott announced the company's intentions to create a standalone stage race for the world's top female cyclists in Britain – the first event of its kind. As a prelude to the inaugural race in 2014, a women's one-day race was held on the final day of the 2013 Tour of Britain in London, won by Hannah Barnes. As history would show, SweetSpot's move was one that the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana organisers would announce some months later. Just a week after this SweetSpot received the news that the Women's Tour had been granted a place on the UCI calendar for May 2014, being granted what was the highest possible ranking for a stage race (2.1) at the time. This put it instantly on a par with the world's top races for women. The first edition was a widely acclaimed success, attracting the world's top riders and teams and widespread media coverage for women's cycling in the UK. While the first edition of the race took place in May (Wednesday 7 - Sunday 11), the second edition in 2015 moved to a mid-June position, a slot it has held on the UCI calendar ever since – with the exception of the 2021 edition, where it was delayed to October due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2016, the race became a part of the inaugural UCI Women's World Tour, the leading series of races for professional women cyclists. In 2017, the finished in London for the first time in race history, with Belgian rider Jolien D'Hoore