Suffolk has been announced as the location of the final stage of the 2020 Women's Tour. This will be the seventh time a stage has taken place in the county in the past six years.

The previous events have been worth over £5.3m for the local economy. In 2019 the county hosted the first stage of the Women's Tour. This year's stage will go from Haverhill to Felixstowe on 13 June and cover roughly 150km. 

Last year, the sixth and final stage went from Carmarthen to Pembrey Country Park in Wales. Lizzie Deignan was the champion of last year's Tour and became the first cyclist to win the multi-stage event more than once.

The news comes as Cycling Weekly has confirmed that the event looks set to go ahead without a title sponsor after OVO Energy's affiliation with the event has come to an end. This would be the first time in the seven years that the event has been running. 

Mick Bennett, the race director, told the magazine: “We want one and we need one to pay for all the frilly bits.” He added: “We’re working very hard to cross that bridge and come to a conclusion as to how it will affect the event."

“It will survive, I haven’t got a crystal ball but in the short term it’s going to survive.”

Bennett also told the magazine that although it would be possible to add stages to the event, they believe it to be too early: "We’ve considered it, it’s my wish to make it a longer stage race, but then it’s more sponsorship, you’re eating into the rest of the calendar. You’re trying to move too quickly."

He said their priorities for the event are to find a national or international sponsor and to see the event televised before scaling up. 

Currently one of the biggest expenses for the event is the police bill which totals at roughly £250,000. Bennett said: “If the government turned around and said they’d pay the bill for that as they do in other countries, then we’re laughing, you don’t need to worry about whether we’ve got a title sponsor. That’s the budget that live TV will come out of.”

Where the opening stages of the event are to be held will be announced over the coming weeks.