News: Tour Series to Brooklands

A century on from holding the first mass start cycle events on the famous Brooklands circuit, the Tour Series will bring elite men’s and women’s racing back to the historic Surrey venue this May.

News: Tour Series to Brooklands

A century on from holding the first mass start cycle events on the famous Brooklands circuit, the Tour Series will bring elite men’s and women’s racing back to the historic Surrey venue this May.

Saturday 25 May will witness the Grand Final of Britain’s leading televised cycle race series, taking place on a circuit based upon the former airfield and motor racing track in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey. As well as the elite races, there will be family fun activities, races and events throughout the day that will celebrate the cycling and sporting heritage of the Brooklands location.

A special corporate challenge event will also engage the many major employers who are settled on or around the Brooklands business complex, located just outside of Weybridge town centre, giving them the chance to experience the same circuit as the professionals and to be a part of history.

Tom Stewart, rider for defending men’s champions Canyon dhb p/b Bloor Homes, added: “Whenever a cycle race finishes at somewhere iconic it adds so much to the occasion, so the Brooklands Grand Final for the Tour Series promises to be a fantastic day of racing.”
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The elite races will take place on a 1.4-kilometre (0.9-mile) circuit that starts and finishes on the former runway of the Brooklands Aerodrome that now forms a community park. The event is expected to attract thousands of cycling fans from across London and the south east of England to witness the return of cycle racing to this iconic location.

September 1907 saw the Brooklands circuit host the world’s first mass start cycle race, something that became a regular fixture during the 1930s and is charted in a special exhibition at the Brooklands Museum. While racing has not returned to the circuit for a number of years, the Brooklands location lies alongside the RideLondon-Surrey Classic route that has been raced on annually by the world’s leading professionals since 2013.

As well as being an unticketed, free-to-attend event, the Tour Series is unique in the world of cycling, as the focus in both the men’s and women’s competition is on the teams, who battle for the overall title based on the performance of all five of their riders in each round. The Series celebrated its 10-year anniversary and 100th event in Salisbury in May 2018.

Highlights of the Tour Series are screened on ITV4 and broadcast around the world, while event day will provide the opportunity for a range of community and cycling activities to take place on the closed road circuit at Brooklands. The Surrey venue joins Redditch, Motherwell, Aberdeen, Durham and Birkenhead as other venues to be confirmed for the Tour Series.

Further details of the Tour Series, including the participating teams and riders, will be announced in the coming week.

Tour Series (May 2019)
9th, Thursday Redditch
14th, Tuesday, Motherwell
16th, Thursday, Aberdeen
18th, Saturday Durham
21st, Tuesday Birkenhead
TBC
25th, Saturday, Brooklands