BRITAIN’S highest-level women’s cycling tour, which would have this year started in Oxfordshire, will be postponed, the organisers have said.

The Women’s Tour was due to take place between June 7 and June 12, but will now be rearranged for some time later in the year.

Organiser SweetSpot has requested alternate race dates of Monday, October 4, to Saturday, October 9 from the sport’s governing body, and it is now working with Union Cycliste Internationale and British Cycling towards these dates.

The Women’s Tour, which forms a part of the prestigious UCI Women’s WorldTour, has its first stage in Oxfordshire.

The race starts at Bicester and will finish with a stage from Haverhill to Felixstowe in Suffolk.

SweetSpot will announce full details of the 2021 route in the summer once alternative dates are confirmed.

ALSO READ: Erdem Food Centre gets a one-star food hygiene score

Commenting on the announcement, race director Mick Bennett said: “We are obviously disappointed to be postponing the Women’s Tour from June but hope that by aiming to stage the race in October we can give the teams and public something to look forward to at the tail end of the summer.”

British Cycling head of sport and major events Jonathan Day said: “We know just how important the Women’s Tour is for our teams and riders, and it’s been fantastic to see the race go from strength to strength over recent years, becoming a mainstay of the British sporting calendar.

“We are working to confirm the proposed date change and look forward to welcoming the world’s best riders to the opening stage in Oxfordshire later this year.”

Oxfordshire residents have called for sweeps of the roads where the race will take place in the past to check for potholes, after a rider crashed out in 2019, due to a poor road surface.