News: Tour of Britain 2022

An outline of where the Tour of Britain will be going in 2022 has been announced as the regions for the race are revealed by the organisers Sweetspot

News: Tour of Britain 2022

A much-anticipated return to Yorkshire and first-ever full stages in Dorset and Gloucestershire will feature in the 2022 Tour of Britain, the first details of which have been revealed today. The host regions for this year’s edition of Britain’s leading cycle race (Sunday 4 – 11 September) combine a return to areas familiar to the Tour with those that will see the free-to-watch event continue to break new ground in 2022.

This year’s Tour of Britain will visit the following regions starting on September 4 (Sunday):
Stage 1: Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire (Sunday 4 September)
Stage 2: Scotland (Monday 5 September)
Stage 3: North East of England and Sunderland (Tuesday 6 September)
Stage 4: Redcar & Cleveland and North Yorkshire (Wednesday 7 September)
Stage 5: Nottinghamshire (Thursday 8 September)
Stage 6: Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire (Friday 9 September)
Stage 7: Dorset (Saturday 10 September)
Stage 8: Isle of Wight (Sunday 11 September)

Never before will the Tour of Britain have started so far north than when Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire hosts the race’s Grand Départ on Sunday 4 September, one year on from the region welcoming the final stage of the 2021 race. The Tour will start in the city of Aberdeen, where a full weekend of activities to run alongside the race, including the Scottish Cycling Criterium Championships, is planned. The stage will finish in spectacular style in Aberdeenshire, taking a different route to the one raced in 2021, which will bring the event into the heart of brand new communities.

For the third edition running, Scotland will host multiple days of the race as a part of the country’s continuing commitment to hosting world-class racing ahead of the 2023 UCI Cycling Worlds, with more details and the location of the second stage to be announced in due course. The Tour’s first foray into England comes on stage three, which will take in the North East and Sunderland. While a new venue to the modern race, Sunderland has recent experience welcoming cycling events, having hosted a round of the Tour Series domestic racing event last year.

The race’s fanbase will be buoyed by the news that the Tour will return to Yorkshire for stage four (Wednesday 7 September) for the first time since 2009, when York welcomed the opening day’s finish. A hotbed of cycling in the UK, a large crowd is anticipated for this stage, which will begin in the seaside town of Redcar, before finishing in North Yorkshire, and promises to be a must watch.

The Tour returns to familiar terrain on day five as it heads to Nottinghamshire for the first time since 2018. The county has an acclaimed list of stage winners to its name, with former world champion Tom Boonen (2004); Tour de France stage winners Matteo Trentin (2015) and Fernando Gaviria (2017); and British rider Ian Stannard (2018) all previously victorious in Robin Hood Country.

While the 2016 race passed through the county, and the penultimate day of the 2017 event culminated in Cheltenham, picturesque Gloucestershire will host an entire stage of the Tour for the first time on Friday 9 September with a route that will also take in South Gloucestershire. Stage six will mark the first of three-consecutive stages to take place in regions entirely new to the race, as he historic county of Dorset makes its race debut on the penultimate day.

This will be followed by a spectacular finale to the 2022 Tour of Britain across the Solent on the Isle of Wight. Known worldwide for its annual music festival, the island will host its biggest-ever sporting event when this year’s overall champion is crowned on Sunday 11 September. The 2022 finale has been two years in the making, having first been announced in July 2020, with today’s announcement confirming that the seaside town of Ryde will host the start of the final stage.

Mick Bennett, Tour of Britain race director, said: “Announcing the locations of the Tour of Britain stages is always a day I look forward to greatly, as I know how much people want to watch the race from their own doorsteps! The 2022 race is shaping up to be another unforgettable edition of the race, particularly since we’re mixing familiar regions, with new areas, places we’ve never fully explored and those we’ve been unable to visit for many years. Hopefully today’s announcement whets the appetite while we finalise the routes of the eight stages – rest assured we’ve got some more surprises to come!”

ITV4 will continue to broadcast live flag-to-flag coverage of every stage, as well as a nightly highlights show, allowing fans in the UK to watch wherever they are.