The Women's Tour cancelled for 2020 because of coronavirus pandemic

Lizzie Deignan won stage five on her way to becoming 2019 Women's Tour champion

The Women's Tour has been cancelled for 2020 and will be rearranged for June 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The stage race, which has been held in Britain every year since 2014, was due to take place from 8-13 June and was initially postponed in March.

Organisers SweetSpot have now decided not to seek a new date this year.

They have applied to cycling's governing body the UCI to stage the next edition between 7-12 June, 2021.

The UCI will release a revised race calendar for this season on Tuesday before confirming the dates for next year in the coming months.

"Following discussions with stakeholders and sponsors, as well as British Cycling and the UCI, we have decided to work towards June 2021 for the next edition of the Women's Tour, and will not seek to re-arrange the race later in 2020," said SweetSpot Group chairman Hugh Roberts.

"We recognise the unprecedented nature of the current global situation and the challenges for the UCI calendar and so wanted to take an early decision not to look for an alternative 2020 date."

The planned route for this year's event will be moved to 2021, with the race starting in Bicester and finishing in Suffolk.

Britain's Lizzie Deignan became the first cyclist to win the Women's Tour twice by winning last year's edition.