BBC Sport will broadcast the new ŠKODA V-SERIES Women’s Tour live this 17-19 June. Action will be broadcast at 19:00 BST for each of the three stages via the BBC Sport website, app and BBC iPlayer.
Taking place between Wednesday 17 and Friday 19 June, riders and teams from across the world will race it out over three stages on the RGT Cycling virtual platform, in the ŠKODA V-SERIES Women’s Tour event, supporting the charities Breast Cancer Now and Mind.
Named the ‘V-SERIES’ as a nod to the virtual racing scene the V-SERIES is a stand-alone event to the real-world road racing Women’s Tour event.
Commentary and expert analysis will be provided by Women’s Tour commentators Marty MacDonald and Olympic Champion Joanna Rowsell Shand while organisers are also planning exciting innovations to give more insight than ever before to the riders and team managers during the event.
The first two stages will feature classic routes from the the past six editions of the Women’s Tour, with riders first facing a likely sprint stage over the final 38.4 kilometres of the 2014 stage to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. Action will then resume Stage Two with a leg replicating the finishing circuit from 2019’s hill top finish at Burton Dassett in Warwickshire, with three ascents of the 1.7 kilometre climb that averages 4.9% during the 35.7 kilometre race.
Both of these stages will be raced on RGT Cycling’s ‘Magic Roads’ software which has allowed event organisers to utilise GPX files to simulate the routes and profiles.
The final stage will take place around 35-laps of a one kilometre circuit at the heart of the world-famous business district of Canary Wharf, London that is one of RGT Cycling’s ultra-realistic Real Roads.
The races will also be broadcast live via the Women’s Tour website and YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/thetourcycling).
The ŠKODA V-SERIES Women’s Tour is being made possible thanks to the support of ŠKODA, California Raisins, RGT Cycling and Scimitar.
Following each stage of the ŠKODA V-SERIES Women’s Tour members of the public will also have the chance to ride the three routes with a suggested donation of £5 to raise money for Breast Cancer Now and Mind.
Mind are the charity partner of Volkswagen Group UK (of which ŠKODA is a part), while Breast Cancer Now’s partnership with the Women’s Tour dates back to 2017 and has seen riders race in the past three editions of the Women’s Tour carrying pink ribbons bearing messages from those affected by breast cancer.
Organisers SweetSpot announced the postponement of the planned 2020 Women’s Tour race in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the next edition of the race due to take place from Monday 7 to Saturday 12 June 2021 with final confirmation of the dates and the 2021 UCI Women’s WorldTour calendar due in the coming months.
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NOTES TO EDITORS
The currently confirmed teams for the ŠKODA V-SERIES Women’s Tour are: Biehler Krush Pro Cycling; Bigla Katusha; Bizkaia Durango; Boels Dolmans Cycling Team; CAMS Tifosi; Cogeas Mettler Look Pro Cycling; Drops; FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope; Great Britain; Hitec Products; Lotto Soudal Ladies; NXTG Racing; Rally Cycling; Storey Racing; Team Breeze; Team TIBCO SVB; and Trek-Segafredo.
About the Women’s Tour
Created by SweetSpot Group in 2014, the 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.
The race, which has been won by the likes of Marianne Vos (2014), Lizzie Deignan (2016, 2019) and Coryn Rivera (2018), attracts an annual roadside audience of 300,000, as well as over three million fans through linear and online platforms.
Follow the Women’s Tour on Twitter (#WomensTour), Facebook, and Instagram or via the event’s official website at womenstour.co.uk.
For further media information please contact: Peter Hodges (peterh@thetour.co.uk) or 07970 526 519
About RGT Cycling
RGT Cycling is a virtual reality cycling simulator that is available for PC, Mac and Apple TV. It is used in conjunction with iOS and Android Apps and supported training hardware. Users from around the world are able to Go Beyond and connect, ride, race and train together in a virtual reality that recreates the captivating culture of real-world cycling. For more visit www.rgtcycling.com
About ŠKODA AUTO
ŠKODA AUTO is this year celebrating 125 years since the company was founded during the pioneering era of the automobile in 1895, making it one of the longest-established car manufacturers in the world.
They currently offer its customers nine passenger-car series: the CITIGO, FABIA, RAPID, SCALA, OCTAVIA and SUPERB, as well as the KAMIQ, KAROQ and KODIAQ.
They delivered 1.24 million vehicles to customers around the world in 2019.
ŠKODA AUTO has belonged to Volkswagen Group since 1991. The Volkswagen Group is one of the most successful vehicle manufacturers in the world. In association with the Group, ŠKODA AUTO independently develops and manufactures vehicles, as well as components such as engines and transmissions.
ŠKODA AUTO operates at three locations in the Czech Republic; manufactures in China, Russia, Slovakia and India mainly through Group partnerships, as well as in Ukraine and Kazakhstan with local partners.
They employ approximately 42,000 people globally and is active in more than 100 markets.
ŠKODA AUTO is pressing ahead with the transformation from a traditional car manufacturer to the ‘Simply Clever company for the best mobility solutions’ as part of the ŠKODA 2025 Strategy.
About Breast Cancer Now
- Breast Cancer Now is the UK’s first comprehensive breast cancer charity, combining world-class research and life-changing care to build a complete view of breast cancer and make faster progress for everyone affected.
- Steered by research and powered by care, Breast Cancer Now’s ambition is that, by 2050, everyone who develops breast cancer will live and be supported to live well.
- Breast Cancer Now funds around a third of all breast cancer research in the UK. By working with almost 340 of the brightest minds in breast cancer research, the charity is helping discover how to prevent more cases, save more lives and enable more women to live well with the disease.
- The charity’s award-winning information and services are there to make sure anyone diagnosed with breast cancer can get the support they need to live well with impacts of the disease. Anyone looking for support or information can call Breast Cancer Now’s free Helpline on 0808 800 6000.
- Breast cancer is the UK’s most common cancer, with around 55,000 women and 370 men being diagnosed each year. An estimated 600,000 people in the UK are alive after a diagnosis of breast cancer, and one in seven women will develop the disease in their lifetime.
- Despite decades of progress in research and care, around 11,500 women and 80 men still die from the disease every year in the UK, with hundreds of thousands more living with the devastating, long-term physical and emotional impacts of the disease.
- Breast Cancer Now, the research and care charity, launched in October 2019, created by the merger of specialist support and information charity Breast Cancer Care and leading research charity Breast Cancer Now.
- For more information on Breast Cancer Now’s work, visit breastcancernow.org or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook.
Peter Hodges
PR & Marketing Director, SweetSpot Group
+44 (0)1932 831 485
+44 (0)7970 526 519