Early signs suggest business support helped make Aviva Women's Tour a success

Warwickshire's business community offered the warmest of welcomes to the world's top cyclists when the county hosted one of the five stages of the prestigious Aviva Women's Tour, part of the Unione Cycliste International's calendar of racing.

And the early signs are that the Warwickshire Stage of the event was a great success after it harnessed the support of businesses and communities, as well as an estimated 6,000 school pupils, across the county.

An Economic Impact Assessment is now being undertaken into the event, which was hosted by Warwickshire County Council in partnership with The University of Warwick and supported by Aldi (whose headquarters are in north Warwickshire), the Mallory Court Hotel in Leamington Spa and The Arden Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon (both part of the Eden Hotel Collection).

Once complete, the assessment will be publicised by the council - watch out for future editions of Warwickshire Means Business for news on this.

While the economic benefit is still to be fully quantified, there is no doubting the lift in profile and footfall the event brought to the county on June 16. After months of anticipation, some of the world’s highest-ranking female cyclists arrived and support for the event was outstanding across the county with spectators gathering all along the route.

Working with participating district and borough authorities to maximise community involvement, the Women’s Tour started strongly in Atherstone. Residents and councillors cheered as Gemma Nash, of the local St Benedict’s RC Primary School, started the race with a flag that she had designed through a local schools competition.

As well as many town and villages in Warwickshire, the Tour also went through the campus of the University where they were greeted to a wall of noise from the 200 Year Six students that were invited to watch the race. 

There was a minor detour due to some flooding in Kenilworth but the peloton wasn’t fazed. The riders pushed on through the inclement weather to Warwick Market Square, where the crowds of onlookers included numerous county councillors, then on past Warwick Technology Park.

Back out into the countryside, there was great support even at the top of a very wet hill at the Burton Dassett Hills Country Park for the 1.9km “Queen of the Mountains” climb.

“It was fantastic to see so much support for the event across Warwickshire”, said Warwickshire County Council leader Cllr Izzi Seccombe. “I truly hope people enjoyed the AVIVA Women’s Tour’s exciting visit to Warwickshire and I’d like to thank everybody involved in organising a brilliant day.

“We hope it will leave a legacy of enthusiasm for sports like cycling in the county."