Wrexham hosts Tour of Britain Women as hundreds line streets

Wrexham hosted the women's race for the first time on Friday (June 7) having enjoyed the men's race in September last year. 

The city centre was transformed ahead of the race, with organisers hard at work from the early hours of the morning to prepare Wrexham to host Stage Two of the 2024 race. 

Residents gathered early to welcome the teams ahead of the 11.15am start from Chester Street, where riders set off to huge cheers from the supporters in attendance. 

A big crowd gathered in the city centre, where activities were put on to celebrate the event being hosted in Wrexham for the first time. 

There were also plenty of pupils from Victoria Primary School on hand to wave off the 86 riders on Friday morning. 

The 15 teams set off from the city centre on the 140km stage, where they travelled through Wrexham, Llay, Gresford and Rossett before heading through the Cheshire countryside. 

The Tour of Britain Women's peloton (Image: SWpix.com)

They then headed back towards Wrexham through Worthenbury, Bangor on Dee, Penley, Overton, Johnstown and Ruabon.

After over 100km, the riders were then faced with the challenge of scaling the Horseshoe pass before returning to the finish line on Chester Street via Coedpoeth, Minera and Bersham.

One of the 15 teams overcame the odds to start the race after their bikes were stolen overnight. 

The Lifeplus - Wahoo team in Wrexham. (Image: SWpix.com)

Lifeplus-Wahoo revealed that all 14 of their bikes had been stolen from their mechanics van at their hotel last night. Thankfully, the other teams helped out and donated spare bikes to ensure all 15 teams were able to set off on Friday morning. 

As the race passed through villages in Wrexham, hundreds of residents were out in force on the streets to cheer on the riders.

MOST READ:

• LIVE: Duke of Westminster wedding takes place in Chester
• Live updates as Tour of Britain Women comes to Wrexham
• Appalled mother and daughter refused entry to Flintshire Recycling Centre

After the tightest of finishes in stage one where world champion Lotte Kopecky, of SD Worx-Protime, held off Letizia Paternoster in a photo finish, stage two was dominated in large parts by Franziska Koch of Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL. 

The German rider boasted a comfortable lead of up to three minutes and 40 seconds at one point, but saw her lead vanish as the riders approached the Horseshoe Pass. 

Lotte Kopecky of Team SD Worx-Protime wins Stage 2 of the 2024 Lloyds Bank Women's Tour of Britain in Wrexham - presented her award by Cllr Beryl Blackmore - Wrexham Mayor (Image: SWpix.com)

However, Belgian rider Kopecky made it back to back wins as she held off Anna Henderson from Team GB to take the spoils in Wrexham. Kopecky's teammate Lorena Wiebes took third place. 

Upon finishing the race, Kopecky told British Cycling: "Yesterday was really close and different, but today it was nice to be in the break with Anna and to finish it off in the sprint."

Stage three of the Tour of Britain gets underway in Warrington on Saturday morning (June 8).