The future of Britain's two major stage races, the Tour of Britain and the Women's Tour, are in further doubt after longtime organizer and promoter Sweet Spot went into liquidation and faces legal claims totaling approximately one million pounds.

According to reports in Cycling Weekly and The Guardian, Sweet Spot CEO Hugh Roberts has confirmed that he has appointed KRE Corporate Recovery to handle creditors after the company went into "voluntary liquidation."

"Liquidation became a possibility in July. 'We were already under a lot of pressure financially from the Tour of Britain,' Roberts told The Guardian. 'It's the end of an era, the result of 20 years of hard work.'

." For the last three or four years, the company has fought many headwinds.

The governing body, British Cycling, withdrew from its previous contract with Sweet Spot in November after allegations surfaced that the company had paid about 750,000 pounds in race license fees.

Cycling Weekly also revealed that the Isle of Wight council, which paid to host the final stage of the 2022 Tour of Britain, which was cancelled after the Queen's death, is considering possible legal action to recover up to £350,000 from Sweet Spot The council stated that it was considering the possibility of legal action to recover up to £350,000 from the sweet spot.

Sweet Spot has run the Tour of Britain since its revival in 2004, but the rights to the race have always been held by British Cycling. They had planned to continue their partnership until 2029 after reaching a new agreement in 2019, but it is now up to the governing body to find a new organizer.

The race was held without a title sponsor in 2023 and faced criticism for offering repetitive parcours of sprint stages without much exploration of Britain's varied terrain.

The British racing scene has taken several hits in recent years, and another headline event in the sweet spot, the Women's Tour, failed to raise enough money through crowdfunding to cover the void left by the loss of its sponsor, and in 2023 Cancelled. The Tour Series, a popular urban racing event, was also cancelled in 2023

due to funding issues.

Roberts told The Guardian that "the prognosis is bleak" for women's racing after the liquidation announcement.

If both events fail to survive beyond 2024, Britain will host only two UCI-sanctioned races, the Rutland-Melton CiCLE Classic (1.2) and the RideLondon Classic. The latter is a three-day stage race in Essex and the capital, and will be Britain's only World Tour race for the second year in a row. 21]

British Cycling issued a statement in November saying that it remained committed to offering a men's race, without mentioning a women's Tour The latest statement, submitted to Cycling Weekly, added that "every possible effort is being made to ensure that the Tour of Britain and the UCI Women's World Tour stage races will continue to be held beyond 2024."

The statement also stated that the UCI is "committed to providing a women's race in the future," and that "the Tour of Britain and the UCI Women's World Tour are committed to providing a women's race in the future.

Roberts acknowledged Sweet Spot's responsibility for the debt, but said she wished more time had been given to resolve the issues from the governing body.

"British Cycling still wanted to receive the full license fee that they felt was due in 2022. The Queen died during the race and despite all the other partners showing us little financial sympathy, they insisted that they should pay the full fee they felt they were owed."

"British Cycling says they have a plan [for the Tour of Britain], but we don't know what it is. There was no room for negotiation. They didn't even give us a reason to appeal."