Bury St Edmunds will host the finish of the inaugural Women’s Tour cycling event next May, organisers have confirmed.

The final stage will run from Harwich to Bury St Edmunds to complete the five-day event which will also run through Leicestershire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire from May 7-11.

Alan Murray, Suffolk County Council’s cabinet member for health and adult care, said: “We are delighted to be hosting the final stage of this exciting new event in Suffolk which promises to be a fantastic spectacle with the world’s top elite women cyclists racing through our county.

“Cycling is one of the activities we have identified as key to achieving our aspiration to become England’s most active county and we hope that by attracting events of this nature to the county it will inspire more residents to get on their bikes and enjoy the freedom and health benefits that cycling can provide.”

The Tour, the country’s first ever international stage race for women, will begin in Oundle, Northamptonshire on Wednesday May 7 with stage finishes in Northampton, Bedford and Clacton-on-Sea in the opening three days.

Stage four will start in Chestnut, Hertfordshire, the home town of double Olympic champion Laura Trott with the riders heading to Welwyn Garden City.

Exact details of the route will be announced in early 2014.