Women's Tour 2019 race to feature six stages for first time
- Published
The 2018 Women's Tour started in East Anglia, and passed through Suffolk, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire before finishing in Wales
The Women's Tour in Britain, which forms part of the UCI Women's World Tour, will increase to six stages of racing for 2019.
Launched in 2014, the Tour - won this year by American Coryn Rivera - has previously been run over five days.
Its prize money was increased to match that of the equivalent men's Tour earlier this year.
"We are delighted to have been granted a sixth day of racing," said race director Mick Bennett.
"Teams and riders have been asking us to extend the event and to broaden the range of stages, which the flexibility of a sixth day will enable us to do."
British Cycling chief executive Julie Harrington added: "We have been very open about our determination to close our sport's historic gender gap, and this is yet another step towards that."