British Cycling has announced a rescue mission to take over running the 2024 men’s and women’s Tours of Britain after the previous promoter went into liquidation, but faces a race against time to stage either event.
Despite having no race routes, sponsorship or stage details finalised, British Cycling said the women’s and men’s races will remain scheduled in their original 2024 dates, of 4-9 June and 1-8 September respectively.
The races will be titled Tour of Britain-Women and Tour of Britain-Men and sit under a new multi-discipline banner of British Cycling Events, which will also include offroad, urban and track disciplines and focus on “tackling inequalities” of social justice, social mobility, social cohesion and inactivity.
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The takeover plans follow the governing body’s acrimonious split with the Tours’ former promoter, Sweetspot, over £700,000 of unpaid licence fees. The unprecedented situation has created what British Cycling’s chief executive, Jon Dutton, called “an opportunity to build momentum and credibility and to engage with a new audience and communities”.
“In working through the untenable situation we found ourselves in, we thought long and hard about bringing everything together,” Dutton said. “As a not-for-profit organisation, money that we bring in is invested back into cycling, which is why the debt outstanding hurts so hard.”
Dutton, who described both events as “multimillion-pound races”, acknowledged that the old financial model, heavily dependent on local authority funding, is now likely to change, but was unable to offer clarity on where future investment might come from.
“The financial position BC finds itself in is tough,” he said. “The only way to replenish our reserves is through growth and that will not happen overnight. We have to deliver new things and manage risk.”
Their task is complicated by outstanding debts for race policing, team prize money and also to local authorities, such as the Isle of Wight. Dutton said, however, that both races retain support and goodwill from stakeholders around the country.
Lizzie Deignan, winner of the women’s Tour of Britain in 2016 and 2019, and the Tour de France stage winner Tom Pidcock – as well as the latter’s team, Ineos Grenadiers – have pledged their support for British Cycling’s initiative.
“As a kid who grew up watching the Tour of Britain, there is always something incredible about seeing elite cyclists racing around your own country,” Pidcock said. “It’s an important race for everyone in the British cycling scene – the clubs, the fans, British riders and the next generations of homegrown talent.”
