News – 2015 Pearl Izumi Tour Series

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Four new venues and two new teams for the 2015 Pearl Izumi Tour Series revealed at the launch at Madison’s IceBike in Milton Keynes

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News – 2015 Pearl Izumi Tour Series

NEW FOR 2015!
— Four new venues for the 2015 series – Isle of Wight, Motherwell, Croydon and Bath
— Hill climb in Aberystwyth, Team Time Trial on the Isle of Wight
— Two new teams make their debut

Pearl Izumi Tour Series – Scotland, England and Wales
Thursday saw details of the 2015 Pearl Izumi Tour Series revealed at Madison’s Icebike show at the MK Dons stadium in Bletchley with lots of exciting new venues.

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Bath will host the final round of the Pearl Izumi Tour Series with this iconic backdrop, the Royal Crescent

Sponsored by leading cycling, running and triathlon apparel brand Pearl Izumi, the Tour Series kicks off on Thursday, May 14 on the Isle of Wight. On a 1.3 kilometre circuit including the long tough climb of Union street in Ryde, nine of the country’s top teams will be racing as well as one guest team per venue. The racing on the Isle of Wight will also see the riders compete in a team time trial.

The second round follows on Tuesday May 19 at Redditch on yet another tough circuit with a hill to test the legs of the riders. It’s the same circuit where Mathieu Boulo won solo in 2014. The series then goes to Aberystwyth (Wales) for round 3 and two events on the one day, a Hill Climb to the top of Constitution Hill (riders return by train!) and a circuit race.

Week 3 of the series sees three events in four days starting at Motherwell (May 26) in Scotland at a new venue on a 1.2 kilometre course which features an uphill finish.

The Series then drops down the country to Durham on Thursday (May 28) and a well used circuit which some riders love and others hate as it’s either up or down and much of the circuit is on cobbles!

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Durham will again host the Tour Series on its cobbled climb…

The next day (Friday), the Series returns to a new venue in 2014, Barrow in Furness on the same 1.1 kilometre circuit where Graham Briggs won in 2014.

Week 4 of the series and the riders are in London for two events starting on Tuesday (June 2nd) . The first is at a new venue at Croydon on a flat 1.3 kilometre technical circuit and then on Thursday, (June 4) the race returns to the land of the sky scrapers at Canary Wharf.

This is on the same flat course used in previous years, one that many would associate a crit being like; flat with four fast corners!

The final week (5) sees the riders in Peterborough on Tuesday and Bath on Thursday. The race at Peterborough is on the same circuit where junior Matt Gibson from the GB Academy team solo’d to a memorable victory. The series then heads to the final venue and yet another new one, Bath.

The host of a stage start in the Tour of Britain and one of the World’s most popular cities for tourists, Bath, the race will feature a stunning backdrop on the one kilometre circuit which includes a climb up to the Royal Crescent and a cobbled back straight. The event will also feature a corporate event.

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This unique and stunning backdrop will again be revisited by the riders in the Tour Series

“We are delighted to announce the seventh season of the Pearl Izumi Tour Series with prestigious new venues and high-profile new teams,” said Mick Bennett, Race Director of Series organisers SweetSpot.

“The season ahead is certainly going to be highly-competitive and we look forward to what will be an action packed five weeks of competition with Britain’s fastest teams vying for the title. As always we have tried to challenge our teams with something new, so we have four new circuits plus what will be a very tough hill climb event as a part of the Aberystwyth event.”

Britain’s Fastest Teams
The organisers have also tweaked the regulations we understand to simplify it for the public. Gone are the times/places of the top three riders counting to the team win and instead, all five of the rider’s times will count on the night with the team with the lowest cumulative time winning the round. Ie, the Fastest Team. Non-finishers and lapped riders are to be given a time but what that will be is still to be revealed.

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Barrow-in-Furness will host the riders again in 2015.

The Points competition is also seeing a few changes with four sprints instead of two. There will be three in the race and the final sprint will also count to that competition and a new sponsor of that is set to be revealed soon.

Races will start at 7.30pm each evening for one hour plus five laps as in previous years and all ten rounds will once again have highlights on ITV4, screened the following evening, the seventh successive year it has been televised by ITV.

The Pearl Izumi Tour Series will also once again include a five-round women’s Grand Prix Series, culminating just a week before the biggest women’s cycle race in the UK, the Friends Life Women’s Tour (17-21 June). Further details of the Grand Prix Series, including venues, will be announced shortly.

Past winners of the unique, team based Pearl Izumi Tour Series are Team Halfords Bikehut (2009), Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta (2010), Rapha Condor Sharp (2011), Endura Racing (2012), Team UK Youth (2013) and Rapha Condor JLT (2014).

The nine teams for the 2015 Pearl Izumi Tour Series will be JLT Condor; Madison Genesis, NFTO, ONE Pro Cycling, Pedal Heaven RT, SportGrub Kuota; Team Raleigh – GAC; Team Wiggins; and Velosure Starley Primal. Joining them will be one guest team per round.

With an even spread of the top riders around the teams, the competition is set to be probably the closest since the series began in 2009. One of the star riders is set to be Australian Circuit race champion Steele Von Hoff. In the last four years, Steele has been on the podium of the Aussie champs four times, the last two as champion, a feat never before done.

In a feature interview on VeloUK, Steele says “I was so happy to win the crit jersey again because I know I can come over here and show it to the UK. Since it’s a very huge thing here, the crit racing, it’s going to be fantastic to be wear the green and gold”.

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Not part of team Wiggins but will the team bring in GB riders like Matt Gibson, winner at Peterborough last year

The Aussie champ though won’t have it his own way if the other teams have anything to do with it. One Pro has Chris Opie who is looking to get back to his best and Jon Mould who won three rounds last year.

The Wiggins team will be a handful with the likes of Owain Doull and Mark Christian whilst Madison Genesis are said by some team managers to have the strongest team in the country with strength in depth which will be crucial in the Tour Series Fastest Team competition.

The men in black JLT Condor have a team which revels in circuit racing and will be favourites for the overall again whilst Raleigh-GAC have a great line up too with a new World Champion in Morgan Kneisky and Ian Wilkinson who was part of the team that won the first ever Tour Series.

The Pearl Izumi Tour Series is set to be the best yet with some fantastic venues and the team line up is just awesome. Bring it on!

VENUES
May 14 – Round 1: Ryde, Isle of Wight (Thursday) (two rounds, Crit and TTT)
May 19- Round 2: Redditch (Tuesday)
May 22 – Round 3: Aberystwyth (Friday) Circuit Race and Hill Climb
May 26 – Round 4: Motherwell (Tuesday) Circuit Race
May 28 – Round 5: Durham (Thursday)
May 29 – Round 6: Barrow-in-Furness (Friday)
June 2 – Round 7: Croydon (Tuesday)
June 4 – Round 8: Canary Wharf (Thursday)
June 9 – Round 9: Peterborough (Tuesday)
June 11: Round 10: Bath (Thursday)

TEAMS
• JLT Condor
• Madison Gensis
• NFTO
• ONE Pro Cycling
• Pedal Heaven RT
• SportGrub – Kuota
• Team Raleigh – GAC
• Team Wiggins
• Velosure Starley Primal
• Plus a guest team(s) per event

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