Race organizer Sweet Spot has announced that it will not be hosting this year's Women's Tour due to rising running costs and a lack of sponsors.

The race route for the five stages in June was announced earlier this month, and in addition to calling for funding from sponsors, Sweet Spot has also launched a crowdfunding campaign to fill the funding gap.

The campaign has so far raised £18,000 of its £100,000 goal, but with no title sponsor for the race and no sponsors for three of the four jerseys, the bar has proved too high for the race to be held this season.

"The combination of increased running costs (approximately 20% more than the 2022 race) and reduced commercial support proved impossible to make the proposed June event happen," Sweet Spot announced Friday morning, saying the race would go on a "one-year hiatus."

The more than 500 fans who contributed to the crowdfunding effort will be refunded and Sweet Spot will begin planning for the 2024 event.

"The Women's Tour appreciates the unwavering loyalty of all who donated and all the goodwill messages sent, and the refund process, managed by the GoFundMe platform, has begun.

"Organizers are already making plans for next year's event, which will mark the 10th anniversary of the first Women's Tour. As part of a long-term agreement with the Welsh government, Wales will host the event's Grande Pearl for the first time.

This year's race was scheduled to start in Stratford-upon-Avon on June 7, with stages in Northampton, Guisborough, and Derby, followed by a closing circuit race in Birmingham on June 11.

Title sponsors to date include Friends Life, Aviva, Ovo, and AJ Bell.

Cottages.com, Brother UK, Accurist, and CycleGuard were among the sponsors for the 2023 race, but Skoda has withdrawn from supplying vehicles to the race, as has the men's Tour of Britain.

The cancellation of the race, which in the past has been won by Marianne Vos, Lizzie Deignan, Demi Volering, and Elisa Longo Borghini, left a void on the women's World Tour calendar and dealt another blow to the domestic British racing scene.

In February, Sweet Spot announced that its long-running annual criterium series, the Tour Series, would not take place in 2023.

Elsewhere, the men's and women's Tour de Yorkshire will not return to the calendar after the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers announced last September that the 2022 race would also be canceled due to "economic factors," and the men's RideLondon Classic was canceled in 2019

The men's race was cancelled in 2019.

The men's continental racing community has also been devastated, with only two teams operating this season, compared to six teams operating through 2018.

Since then, JLT Condor, One Pro Cycling, Wiggins, Swift Carbon, and Vitas have all fallen by the wayside, Ribble fell to the club level in the winter, and AT85 (formerly Canyon dhb) collapsed earlier this month (open in new tab), leaving the men's peloton with Trinity Racing and St. Piran were the only ones left.

In the women's peloton, Lifeplus-Wahoo also faced a 400,000 euro budget shortfall and a battle to continue into the winter after title sponsor Le Corr pulled out. However, the team was able to continue because nutritional wellness company Lifeplus became the title sponsor.