Three weeks to save the Women’s Tour as organiser launches crowdfunding campaign

Get The Leadout Newsletter

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!

Name: Your Email Address

Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands

Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors

Thank you for signing up to The Pick. You will receive a verification email shortly.

There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.

There are just three weeks to save the 2023 Women's Tour,beplay手机客户端下载understands, after the race's organiser launched acrowdfunding campaignin the wake of ongoing sponsorship woes.

组织者SweetSpotis seeking to raise £100,000 through aGoFundMe campaignto meet “ever-increasing organisational costs, as well as a shortfall from sponsorship income”.

Inflation has hit the race hard with hotel costs for the riders and staff, which run into the hundreds, each night nearly doubling in the last year.

The organisation said: “At present, three of the race’s four prestigious jersey classifications (leader, mountains, and best young rider) remain available, while individual stage partnership packages (including naming rights) are also on offer for the first time for selected days.”

beplay手机客户端下载understands organisers are hoping to raise £500,000 from a combination of the crowdfundig target and additional sponsorship but that £350,000 may be enough to make the race viable.

It's understood significant funding needs to be in place by Easter weekend, when SweetSpot will start to incur costs for race infrastructure, so a decision on whether to proceed with the 2023 edition can be reached.

揭幕的集资”的倡议of the route last week which has beencut from six stages to fivein the wake of mounting costs.

At thattime SweetSpot saidthe race “urgently requires additional commercial income” in order to run in 2023 and that the race is without a vehicle sponsor for its convoy.

Launching the crowdfunding campaign today Nick Bull, Women’s Tour PR manager, said: “Having been inundated with messages from people wishing to show their support for the race over the past week, launching a crowdfunding campaign seemed the logical thing to do.

“We’ve been blown away by their kind words and everybody associated with the race thanks them for their continued support!”

Also former World ChampionLizzie Deignanhas said if the race was unable to go ahead it would be a “huge loss” for the sport.

TheTrek-Segafredo rider told PA: “It’s a really important race because June doesn’t have many stage races, so it’s brilliant preparation ahead of the national championships and the Tour de France.

“The way the race is run is extremely professional and it’s probably been the most professional race we’ve had on the calendar.”

This year’s race is due to start in Royal Leamington Spa before visiting Deignan’s home county of Yorkshire on stage three. The race’s finale will be held on a circuit in the centre of Birmingham.

The race’s financial difficulty follows that of its sister series theTour Series which organiser SweetSpot scrappedearlier this year citing “the most challenging economic climate the series has faced”.

SweetSpot issued a statement that read: “It has proved impossible to compile a commercially viable calendar of events for May due to the pressures on local authority funding, combined with the wider economic challenges all businesses face.”