- Six-stage race sets off from Bicester on Monday
- Van Dijk and Van Vleuten ruled out after bruising Paris-Roubaix
Lizzie Deignan, the winner on Saturday of the first women’s Paris‑Roubaix, will be the main attraction in the 2021 AJ Bell Women’s Tour of Britain, which begins in Bicester on Monday. The six‑stage race will feature many of those who battled through the historic inaugural edition of the women’s “Hell of the North”, won by a bloodied and tearful Deignan in Roubaix.
The dramatic growth in popularity of women’s cycling, demonstrated by the advent of a women’s Paris-Roubaix and the long-awaited return in 2022 of the women’s Tour de France, will be exemplified this week by the Women’s Tour, which returns after a 28-month absence enforced by the coronavirus pandemic.
