Tour of Britain: Evenepoel/Alaphilippe To Race National Tour

Double Olympic gold medallist and Tour de France podium finisher Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe, winner of the 2018 Men’s Tour of Britain Men, headline the first batch of star riders to be confirmed for this September’s Men’s Tour of Britain which begins on Tuesday 3 September.

Tour of Britain: Evenepoel/Alaphilippe To Race National Tour

DOUBLE OLYMPIC CHAMPION REMCO EVENEPOEL AND JULIAN ALAPHILIPPE HEAD TO LLOYDS BANK MEN’S TOUR OF BRITAIN THIS SEPTEMBER

Riders named so far for Men’s Tour of Britain (18 teams)
– Remco Evenepoel
– Julian Alaphilippe
– Ethan Vernon
– Jonas Abrahamsen
– Markus Hoelgaard
– Norman Vahtra

Photo: Getty Images

Evenepoel will be joined on the start line in the Scottish Borders at Kelso on Tuesday 3 September by teammate and former world champion Julian Alaphilippe, whose two previous appearances in the Tour have resulted in overall victory (2018), and third overall (2021).

For Evenepoel it will be a first appearance in the Men’s Tour of Britain, coming just a month after he sensationally became the first male rider in history to win the gold in both the road race and time-trial at an Olympic Games.

This came in a season when he has already won stages in four major stage races, most recently at the Tour de France where he won the stage seven individual time trial on his way to the best young rider jersey and third overall.

Double World Road race champion (2020 and 2021) Alaphilippe will be making his third appearance in Britain’s biggest professional cycle race. Having won the King of the Mountains classification in the 2018 Tour de France, Alaphilippe lived up to his star billing at that year’s Men’s Tour of Britain, winning the third stage in Bristol, and taking a runner up spot on a crucial summit finish in the Lake District to seal the overall victory.

Alaphilippe in the 2018 Men’s Tour of Britain in London

Three editions later Alaphilippe returned to contest a memorable battle with Wout van Aert for overall victory, and despite recording top 10 positions on the first six stages, eventually had to settle for third in the general classification, but cemented himself in the hearts of British fans.

This season the 32-year-old Frenchman has won stages of the Tour of Slovakia, Czech Tour, and Giro d’Italia, also taking the Combativity Award in the latter. Having starred during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games road race, he highlighted his good form with second place in the Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa WorldTour race at the weekend.

Alongside the formidable Soudal Quick-Step duo are Paris 2024 Olympic Games track cycling silver medallist Ethan Vernon (Israel – Premier Tech), Tour de France mountains hero Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) plus a trio of national champions.

Vernon will line-up for his fourth Men’s Tour of Britain, having won a silver medal in the team pursuit during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Already a double World Champion on the track, Vernon was a member of the squad that broke the British record in the first round before claiming a silver medal in the final.

Ethan Vernon on the podium at Beverley in the 2023 Edition of the Men’s Tour of Britain

Having made his Men’s Tour of Britain debut in 2019, last September saw the 23-year-old finishing in the top six in each of the first six stages of the race, including runners up spot in a photo finish with Danny van Poppel in Harlow.

Making his Men’s Tour of Britain debut will be Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility). The 28-year-old Norwegian leapt to prominence in this summer’s Tour de France, featuring strongly in the days’ break on each of the first two stages to hold the King of the Mountains jersey for the first 10 stages.

Earlier this season Abrahamsen took his biggest career win to date in the Brussels Cycling Classic UCI ProSeries race, while also finishing runner-up in the UCI WorldTour Dwars door Vlaanderen one-day race a few weeks before.

A trio of national champions scheduled to ride are also among the first names to be confirmed, led by Uno-X Mobility’s Norwegian road race champion Markus Hoelgaard and Estonian Norman Vahtra (Van Rysel – Roubaix). Vahtra is twice a winner of his country’s national road race title, the most recent coming in June this year.

Should he recover from injury in time Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Development Team) will complete the trio riding in the national champions jerseys, having beaten WorldTour opposition to the Danish road race title in the summer. Due to become the latest Danish talent to join the UCI WorldTour next season, Pedersen also took the honours in the prestigious GP Herning one-day in his home country in May before breaking his collarbone in July.

In total 18 teams, including six that participated in this summer’s Tour de France, from 12 countries will line-up in Scotland for stage one on Tuesday 3 September for a field of 108 riders.

The Men’s Tour of Britain begins in the Scottish Borders on Tuesday 3 September followed by stages in the Tees Valley, South Yorkshire, the East Midlands and West Northamptonshire, before concluding in Suffolk on Sunday 8 September after six stages of action-packed racing.

STAGES
Stage 1: Tuesday 3 September — Kelso to Kelso
Stage 2: Wednesday 4 September — Darlington to Redcar
Stage 3: Thursday 5 September — Sheffield to Barnsley
Stage 4: Friday 6 September — Derby to Newark-on-Trent
Stage 5: Saturday 7 September — Northampton to Northampton
Stage 6: Sunday 8 September — Lowestoft to Felixstowe

Photos: Getty Sport/Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team