Feature News: 2016 Tour of Britain

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The route for the 2016 edition of the Tour of Britain, Britain’s premier road cycling event,will start in Glasgow and finish in London and including a time trial on a split day (2 stages) and summit finish (Haytor).

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Feature News: 2016 Tour of Britain
Sunday 4 to Sunday 11 September

Mark McNally

Rider Reaction to the Route: 

Former King of the Mountains – Mark McNally ( (Wanty-Gobert) says of the route “it looks like a classic Tour of Britain route. Every day has its own different challenges. I’ll be looking forward to the North Wales stage as it uses some roads I used to train on with my first club the Liverpool Century. The double day on the second to last day will bring its own new challenges and returning to Haytor will be great as the atmosphere up there is always electric! The grand stand finish in London is something never to be missed!

James Lowsley-Williams: It is great to finally see the route for the Tour of Britain 2016, The route looks fantastic, it is also great to see the route come back down south and heading round my neck of the woods, With the Bath and Bristol stage the crowds were phenomenal in 2014 and it can only get better for 2016. With more teams coming to UCI level in 2016 it is going to make the UK scene exciting and the racing hard throughout the year. As always the Tour of Britain is the biggest goal for me and NFTO. I am now looking forward to racing.

Press Release – Sweetspot

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Summary:

The route for the 2016 edition of the Tour of Britain, British Cycling’s premier road cycling event, has been launched in Bristol with the race starting in Glasgow and finishing in London and including a time trial and summit finish. The route will certainly favour teams with a rider who can climb and also time trial with two ‘queen days’ on Friday and Saturday.

Stage 6 sees the race finish on the top of Haytor in Devon where there will be time gaps at the top. In 2013, when Simon Yates won by a few seconds, thirty seconds covered the top 10 and the last rider was 16 minutes down. But if Haytor is tough, then the next day is a rider’s nightmare… split stage in Bristol.

Stage 7a will see riders tackle one lap of a circuit against the clock, starting on the Downs, crossing the Clifton Suspension Bridge to Leigh Woods before turning around at Bedminster Bridge, heading to the Cumberland Basin and crossing to Hotwells before climbing Bridge Valley Road and finishing back on the Downs. Then, Stage 7b will see the time trial course turned into a five-lap circuit race, featuring multiple (5) ascents of the 600-metre, 9 per cent climb of Bridge Valley Road.

Race director Mick Bennett told the Guardian that “The winner will need to be strong in the time trial, then his team will need the resilience to defend the lead later in the day.”

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THE ROUTE

As well as the start in Glasgow (Scotland) and the finale in the centre of London, there are three stages in the South West of England, including a return to the summit finish of Haytor on Dartmoor, and a challenging individual time trial and circuit race split stage in the heart of Bristol on the penultimate day.

Having last welcomed the Tour of Britain in 2008, Glasgow will host the Grand Depart of the opening stage on Sunday 4 September, building on the success of hosting the Commonwealth Games and British National Road Race Championships in recent years. The opening stage will finish in Dumfries and Galloway’s Castle Douglas, last visited by the Tour of Britain in 2006, before the second stage takes place in Cumbria and the Lake District between Carlisle and Kendal, including the iconic climbs of Whinlatter Pass and The Struggle, before the uphill finish on Beast Banks.

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Above: Stage 1 – click for a bigger version

The third stage of the Tour of Britain will feature a first visit to Cheshire East with a stage from Congleton to Tatton Park outside Knutsford, which will feature a spectator friendly loop giving fans at the finish the chance to see the race twice. The stage will also tackle the iconic 10-kilometre climb of the Cat and Fiddle in Cheshire’s Peak District.

Denbighshire will host its first stage start as Stage Four begins in Denbigh, heading south through Mid-Wales before Powys hosts a first stage finish, on the Royal Welsh Showground at Builth Wells. Stage Five begins in Wales in Rhondda Cynon Taf at Aberdare, heading across South Wales and through the Forest of Dean into Gloucestershire before the finish in Bath, a first for the city.

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The Stage 7 circuit race following the morning time trial.  Stage distance 76.5kilometres (5 laps of a 15.3 kilometres) | Total ascent 972metres (5 laps of 324) | Highest point 104 metres

This will begin three days of racing in the South West after a one-year absence for the area from the Tour of Britain route that will see the world’s top teams head to Devon for a repeat of the 2013 summit finish at Haytor in the Dartmoor National Park.

Bristol will host the penultimate stage of the race, which will be a split stage with riders contesting an 15-kilometre individual time trial in the morning before a 5-lap circuit race in the afternoon. Both stages will take place entirely on a proposed 15.3-kilometre circuit finishing atop the Bristol Downs. The 600-metre SKODA King of the Mountains climb of Bridge Valley Road, which averages 9%, will feature in the final kilometres of a both stages.

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London will again host the final stage, presented by Transport for London, on Sunday 11 September, which will use the same circuit as in 2015, focused on Regent Street, the Heart of London and the Northbank, with a repeat of the finish on Regent Street St James just below Piccadilly Circus.

Competition for places between UCI Conti Teams

Competition for places in the Tour of Britain by the British UCI teams (Conti level) does mean the racing in the UK will have an extra edge in 2016. There are six UCI Conti teams in the UK; Raleigh-GAC, Madison Genesis, Pedal Heaven, JLT Condor, NFTO and Team Wiggins. Of those, only Team Wiggins has qualified thanks to Owain Doull’s third place in 2015 and the organisers are crossing their fingers Bradley Wiggins is part of their line up for the Tour.

The other five teams will be competing for the remaining three spots which means two teams will miss out. The races expected to be part of the selection process will be the Pearl Izumi Tour Series, the British UCI races, British RR Championships and some of the latter Premier Calendar events. The three teams will be confirmed after the cutoff point on August 1st.

“We can’t have half the field coming from the UK if we want this to be an international event,” said the organiser Mick Bennett to the Guardian’s William Fotheringham. Teams already confirmed to be racing the event include WorldTour squads Team Sky, Movistar, Dimension Data, Movistar, Orica-GreenEdge,  Lotto-Soudal, Cannondale, BMC,  Trek-Segafredo and Lotto-Jumbo.

Commenting on the route announcement, Tour of Britain Race Director Mick Bennett said; “We are confident that this year’s route for the Tour of Britain will provide the opportunity for eight exciting days of racing and a multitude of opportunities for riders and teams to be aggressive and make the race. We believe that with the combination of longer stages of over 200-kilometres, the tough circuit and time trial in Bristol and the summit finish at Haytor we have not just a great preparation for the World Championships but also a fantastic race that will showcase the British countryside and stands alone in its own right as a race riders will want to win.”

“The route includes major cities such as Glasgow, Bristol, Bath and London, and visits each of Scotland, England and Wales, while at the same time touching many smaller communities and areas where we know the passion and support for cycling is so great.”

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Chain Reaction Cycles continue their partnership with the race and sponsorship of the Chain Reaction Cycles Points Classification, won in 2015 by Team WIGGIN’s Owain Doull, while UK parcel carrier Yodel will continue to sponsor the daily intermediate YodelDirect Sprints classification, which Peter Williams won last September.

ŠKODA remain official car suppliers and sponsors of the King of the Mountains jersey, also won by Williams in 2015. For the fifth successive year fans can look forward to enjoying daily live coverage of all eight stages on ITV4, with the channel broadcasting a three-hour live programme from each stage, plus one-hour of highlights every evening during the race.

Commenting on the 2016 event, Hugh Roberts, Chief Executive of Tour of Britain organisers SweetSpot said; “This year’s Tour of Britain features a fantastic combination of major cities like Glasgow, Bristol and London, smaller communities across Scotland, England and Wales and the stunning scenery and testing climbs of the Lake District and Dartmoor. With hundreds of thousands of fans at the roadside and millions more watching via live television in the UK and around the world, the 2016 Tour of Britain is a fantastic showcase for the brands involved in the event.

“We thank our jersey partners Chain Reaction Cycles, SKODA and Yodel and all our other Official Partners and Suppliers for their continued support.”

THE ROUTE FOR 2016

Stage 1 Sunday 4 September Glasgow to Castle Douglas 168km

Stage 2 Monday 5 September Carlisle to Kendal
Stage distance 195 kilometres | Total ascent 3,779 metres | Highest point 447 metres

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Stage 3 Tuesday 6 September Congleton to Tatton Park, Knutsford
Distance: 182.7 kilometres | Total ascent 2,138 metres | Highest point 517 metres

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Stage 4 Wednesday 7 September Denbigh to Builth Wells
Stage distance 217 kilometres | Total ascent 4,133 metres | Highest point 488 metres

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Stage 5 Thursday 8 September Aberdare to Bath
Stage distance 205 kilometres | Total ascent 3,675 metres | Highest point 261 metres

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Click to see a bigger version of this map +

Stage 6 Friday 9 September Sidmouth to Haytor, Dartmoor
Stage distance 150 kilometres | Total ascent 3,101 metres | Highest point 394 metres

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Stage 7a Saturday 10 September Bristol Stage Individual Time Trial 15km

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Click for a bigger version including profile +

Stage 7b Saturday 10 September Bristol Stage Circuit Race 76.5km

Stage 8 Sunday 11 September London Stage presented by TfL 100km

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HISTORY

Re-launched in 2004 after a five year absence from the calendar, the Tour of Britain is British Cycling’s premier road cycling event giving cycling fans the opportunity to see the world’s best teams and riders competing on their doorstep. The Tour of Britain is the UK’s highest ranked professional stage race and the country’s largest free-to-watch sporting event, organised annually by SweetSpot Group.

Ranked at the 2.HC level by the UCI, the Tour of Britain attracts the world’s top cyclists, including Olympic and World Champions and Tour de France stage winners, to compete on British roads each September, with three-hours of live coverage a day on ITV4.

 

FORMER WINNERS

2004 Mauricio Ardila (COL) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf
2005 Nick Nuyens (BEL) Quick-Step–Innergetic
2006 Martin Pedersen (DEN) Team CSC
2007 Romain Feillu (FRA) Agritubel
2008 Geoffroy Lequatre (FRA) Agritubel
2009 Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR) Team Columbia–HTC
2010 Michael Albasini (SUI) Team HTC–Columbia
2011 Lars Boom (NED) Rabobank
2012 Nathan Haas (AUS) Garmin–Sharp (after the DQ of Jonathan Tiernan-Locke)
2013 Bradley Wiggins (GBR) Team Sky
2014  Dylan van Baarle (NED) Garmin–Sharp
2015  Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR) MTN–Qhubeka

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