Aviva Women’s Tour 2016 is a UCI Women’s World Tour event in 2016. Starting in Southwold on June 15th and finishing in Kettering on June 19th. Covering a total distance of six-hundred-and-twenty-one kilometers in total is the longest distance covered so far in this third edition of the Women’s Tour. With an increase to just under seven-thousand-four-hundred meters of ascending, this is by-far the toughest Tour so far.
The five day stage races longest individual stage is stage two from Atherstone to Stratford-upon-Avon at a distance of one-hundred-and-forty kilometers. This years Tour will visit seven counties in 2016, five, new to the Tour.
Marianne Vos makes a welcome return to the Tour this time around after missing most of last seasons racing. Vos won the inaugural Women’s Tour back in 2014 riding with Rabo Liv and returns again with her Rabo Liv team-mates to reclaim her crown winning races already this year in Europe, will still be a force to recon with.
Defending champion Lisa Bennauer returns to the Women’s Tour in the re-jigged Canyon-SRAM team along with the winner of the final stage from last year in Hemel Hemstead, Hannah Barnes. Hannah was back in America last weekend riding the Philadelphia Classic, the last round of the UCI Women’s World Tour where American National Champion Megan Guarnier, Boels Dolmans took the victory.
The Aviva Women’s Tour is the second longest event in the UCI Women’s World Tour calendar in 2016. The longest being Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile starting on July 01st and ending on July 10th.
Pre Race Press
Mick Bennett: He can’t remember having such a stella line up! Defending Champion Lisa Brennaur, World’s number one Emma Johansson, Olympic Champion Marianne Vos and the World Champion Lizzie Armitstead.
Press: Aims for the week?
Lizzie: Finishing my first ever Women’s Tour, with a chuckle! I’ve haven’t managed to do that. Lizzie went on to say that just wanted to enjoy being the (World) Champion and doing a good race. She wants to come out of this weeks Tour feeling stronger than she had coming into it.
The girls are all eager to get a good GC contention for themselves or one of their team mates, Emma had said that should they get a good first result, they would fight all the way to Sunday.
Press: Women’s Cycling had grown significantly over the past few years. How important is the Tour in the Women’s Calendar?
Lizzie: Races like these are the blueprint of how they should be put on. In 2016, this is how it should be done. The Women’s Tour is leading the way. She went on to say that the UK has the most prestigious stage race in Women’s Cycling. In terms of professionalism and race organization the Tour leads the way.
They all agree that the Tour has a really good feel to it and everyone agrees that the crowds that line the roads are the best in Women’s Cycling too. They love the school children on the road side and the enthusiasm of the crowd.
Mick Bennett hinted on that it’s Sweetspot’s intention to make it a seven day stage race next year, and the possibility of a time or team-time-trial too! The Women’s Tour has a very, very good future and with stars like this here year-on-year
You can listen to the whole press conference on Sound Cloud at Cycling Shorts.
Download the Official Start List #
UCI Women’s World Tour Rankings after the Philadelphia Classic
| 1 (1) | Megan GUARNIER | United States | DLT | 31 | 624 |
| 2 (2) | Emma JOHANSSON | Sweden | WHT | 33 | 398 |
| 3 (3) | Elizabeth ARMITSTEAD | Great Britain | DLT | 28 | 368 |
| 4 (4) | Chantal BLAAK | Netherlands | DLT | 27 | 349 |
| 5 (9) | Elisa LONGO BORGHINI | Italy | WHT | 25 | 302 |
| 6 (5) | Anna VAN DER BREGGEN | Netherlands | RBW | 26 | 300 |
| 7 (10) | Evelyn STEVENS | United States | DLT | 33 | 271 |
| 8 (6) | Katarzyna NIEWIADOMA | Poland | RBW | 22 | 235 |
| 9 (7) | Leah KIRCHMANN | Canada | TLP | 26 | 235 |
| 10 (15) | Alena AMIALIUSIK | Belarus | LPR | 27 | 225 |
| 11 (8) | Annemiek VAN VLEUTEN | Netherlands | OGE | 34 | 209 |
| 12 (11) | Chloe HOSKING | Australia | WHT | 26 | 169 |
| 13 (12) | Marianne VOS | Netherlands | RBW | 29 | 157 |
| 14 (13) | Ting Ying HUANG | Chinese Taipei | 26 | 156 | |
| 15 (14) | Jolanda NEFF | Switzerland | SEF | 23 | 144 |
| 16 (16) | Lisa BRENNAUER | Germany | LPR | 28 | 132 |
| 17 (17) | Gracie ELVIN | Australia | OGE | 28 | 124 |
| 18 (19) | Coryn RIVERA | United States | UHC | 24 | 122 |
| 19 (18) | Kristin ARMSTRONG | United States | T16 | 43 | 118 |
| 20 (20) | Roxane FOURNIER | France | FUT | 25 | 104 |
UCI Women's World Tour Calendar 2016
| 05 Mar 2016 | Strade Bianche | ITA | ARMITSTEAD (GBR) | ARMITSTEAD (GBR) |  |
| 12 Mar 2016 | Women’s WorldTour Ronde van Drenthe | NED | BLAAK (NED) | VAN DER BREGGEN (NED) | |
| 20 Mar 2016 | Trofeo Alfredo Binda – Comune di Cittiglio | ITA | ARMITSTEAD (GBR) | ARMITSTEAD (GBR) | |
| 27 Mar 2016 | Gent-Wevelgem In Flanders Fields | BEL | BLAAK (NED) | BLAAK (NED) | |
| 03 Apr 2016 | Ronde van Vlaanderen / Tour des Flandres | BEL | ARMITSTEAD (GBR) | ARMITSTEAD (GBR) | |
| 20 Apr 2016 | La Flèche Wallonne Féminine | BEL | VAN DER BREGGEN (NED) | ARMITSTEAD (GBR) | |
| 06 May-08 May 2016 | Tour of Chongming Island | CHN | HOSKING (AUS) | ARMITSTEAD (GBR) | |
| 19 May-22 May 2016 | AMGEN Tour of California | USA | GUARNIER (USA) | GUARNIER (USA) | |
| 05 Jun 2016 | Philadelphia International Cycling Classic | USA | GUARNIER (USA) | GUARNIER (USA) | |
| 15 Jun-19 Jun 2016 | Aviva Womens Tour | GBR | |||
| 01 Jul-10 Jul 2016 | Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile | ITA | |||
| 24 Jul 2016 | La Course by Le Tour de France | FRA | |||
| 30 Jul 2016 | Prudential Ride London Grand Prix | GBR | |||
| 19 Aug 2016 | Crescent Women World Cup Vargarda TTT | SWE | |||
| 21 Aug 2016 | Crescent Women World Cup Vargarda | SWE | |||
| 27 Aug 2016 | GP de Plouay-Bretagne | FRA | |||
| 11 Sep 2016 | Madrid Challenge By LA Vuelta | ESP |
This Years Aviva Women's Tour Stages Map
