Tour of Britain 2016
Just a reminder for anyone interested that this years Tour of Britain starts in Glasgow tomorrow, and finishes in London next Sunday, taking in the Lakes, South Wales, Bath, Bristol, Midlands and Dartmoor on its way to London.
The race continues to grow, and is now attracting 10 World Pro Teams, and other Continental teams as well as some homegrown talent riding for Team Wiggins and Team GB.
No Froome and Quintana, they are battling out the last big Tour of the year in Spain, but many teams are fielding stars of the big tours such as Griepel, Cavendish, Cummings, Pouells, Dan Martin, Tony Martin, Mark Renshaw, Tom Dumoulin, and it's a chance
to see Bradley Wiggins and Owain Douell, plus Elia Viviani, three gold medalists from Rio! Likely to be Brad's last road race, so let's hope he makes it all the way to London!
Full details of each stage, starts and finishes, routes, teams and individual riders can all be found on the official Tour of Britain website.
Down the last few years, the starts, route and finishes have attracted huge crowds, all enjoying a great free day of sport and enjoying seeing some of the best cycling superstars, and the newly emerging youngsters who hopefully go on the tackle the really
big events such as the Giro, Vuelta and TdeF!
Comments
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Great photos Goldie! We were at the Cockermouth to Kelso stage last year (riding in a race car, whoo hoo!) and have done the Dartmoor stages two years previously. Back down to Dartmoor this year, for Haytor finish on Friday. We love this race, we can't get
across to continent yet, so TDeF is on hold, but the atmosphere for Tof B is always great! My OH was out yesterday and tootling along, another cyclist said hello as he approached a hill, turned out to be our local hero, Russell Downing, getting in some last
minute miles. They were together for a while, but then Russell said see ya, and shot off at a great rate up the hill! Nice chap!
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Stunning win by Ian Stannard today, racing away from the 4 man breakaway on the Cat & Fiddle and soloing it to the finish. A brave ride yesterday by Steve Cummings after a lead out by Cav on The Struggle at Ambleside.
Cav's been in the action in other ways too, crashing on stage 1 and then giving an ignorant bystander, won't say supporter, a what for half way up The Struggle. Wonder what provoked that?
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NtH, Cav said he'd been going about his work when the bystander started barracking him, so he saw fit to take exception to the silly lad !!
The best thing I've noticed round here about the Tour of Britain, thus far is the fact that Cheshire East Council had loads of cleaners out with Litter Grabs and plenty of sacks ! Hope it becomes a habit !!
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Yes, excellent ride by Stannard. Devon CC have really gone to town on Dartmoor, P&R to finish, big screen, cycle events throughout day, stalls and things, meet the riders. Just hope it stays dry now
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Circuit race around Bristol this afternoon, starting on the downs , over the suspension bridge, down and back along the Avon through Ashton Gate and then looping back past Baltic Wharf. Would be an excellent place to watch from, just pop out for each passage
and watch the rest on TV. Must have made arrivals and departures interesting.0 -
Circuit race around Bristol this afternoon, starting on the downs , over the suspension bridge, down and back along the Avon through Ashton Gate and then looping back past Baltic Wharf. Would be an excellent place to watch from, just pop out for each passage
and watch the rest on TV. Must have made arrivals and departures interesting.For all of the ariel views we got I still couldn't spot the site, or perhaps I wasn't looking at the right time.
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A first on the stage and a second in the Time Trial saw Rohan Dennis get to within 26secs of the Race Leader Steve Cummings. However with the final stage a circiuit race round London it looks as if the Englishman has finally won the Tour of Britain after
2 second places.0 -
Circuit race around Bristol this afternoon, starting on the downs , over the suspension bridge, down and back along the Avon through Ashton Gate and then looping back past Baltic Wharf. Would be an excellent place to watch from, just pop out for each passage
and watch the rest on TV. Must have made arrivals and departures interesting.For all of the ariel views we got I still couldn't spot the site, or perhaps I wasn't looking at the right time.
We spotted it Nellie, great view as they zip past! They have had problems with getting aerial photos this Tour, especially Cumbria and Dartmoor stage, weather just too bad. Too dangerous for helicopters, we really missed seeing chopper on Dartmoor, and the
TV highlights have been poor without as many aerial views. On the plus side, there have been far more spectators on the day than for the Vuelta stages!
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I agree, London doesn't lend itself to a circuit race, too hemmed in with high buildings. Boring for TV viewing. Paris is a superb venue for race finish. However, there are huge crowds watching, good for sponsors, riders enjoy being cheered on. Great win
by Steve Cummings, well deserved and popular.0 -
Circuit race around Bristol this afternoon, starting on the downs , over the suspension bridge, down and back along the Avon through Ashton Gate and then looping back past Baltic Wharf. Would be an excellent place to watch from, just pop out for each passage
and watch the rest on TV. Must have made arrivals and departures interesting.For all of the ariel views we got I still couldn't spot the site, or perhaps I wasn't looking at the right time.
They showed sections of it a few times, plus the gates and an overall shot from very high up. I have a slightly unfair advantage in spotting where they were, being born and brought up in Bristol and visiting it frequently over the years. The production staff
clearly were not very clued up, putting up the caption for the Great Britain on totally the wrong ship. It makes you wonder how often they do that sort of thing when it is an area you know nothing about.0 -
The TV coverage hasn't been as good this year, firstly because bad weather on at least a couple of the stages prevented the helicopter footage, which adds a lot of atmosphere and interest. Secondly, the crew who normally front this tour were out covering
the Vuelta. Huw Porter was struggling somewhat on his own. But live and out on the stages, the atmosphere and extra events organised were really good, and thousands out showing their appreciation. Some very good riders though, and a very popular winner in
Steve Cummings.0 -
That's your opinion Ian, and I seem to recall that you weren't too complimentary regarding Ned Boulting and David Millar during TdeF, but hope you enjoyed the Vuelta a little more? I think Mr Porter did ok, not my favourite by any means.
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That is my opinion, TtDA.
And yes, Ned Boulting got no better as it went along. I felt quite sorry for David Millar (who I think is good at giving insights into what goes on in the peloton) as he had to continually correct Ned.
Ned is an amusing fellow. I read his first book, "How I Won the Yellow Jumper" which is itself named after one of his gaffes. But as a commentator he is way out of his depth.
Porter never did know anything about road racing, and has clearly been dragged in as a third rate commentator for a third rate event.
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If it was a 3rd rate event the major teams would not want to be associated with it. As it was nearly all the major teams were there in force, with world & national champions, recent Tour stage winners and wearers of the Yellow and Green jerseys. You do have
a very blinkered outlook Ian!!0 -
"Nearly all the major teams were there"
Really? By my count, about half of the UCI pro teams didn't bother to enter.
At least two of the teams didn't even enter a full team of riders! That's how seriously they took it!
If that isn't paying lip service to an event just for the sake of some of the sponsors, I don't know what it was.
This is a typical race for which the outcome is agreed between the team management before the event......because it has no standing in the world rankings.
When you say Tour stage winners - would that be Cavendish.......who made little effort and was just there for show (after all, his team may not even be in the pro series next year, due to their lack of race wins)?
Or Wiggins, who similarly made no effort (does he ever?) and whose Sky sponsored semi amateur team will soon fold?
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When you say Tour stage winners - would that be Cavendish.......
No, Greipel, Viviani, Caleb Ewan, Tom Dumoulin to name a few.
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I wouldn't waste effort talking sense to closed minds Nellie, Ian and his tandem chum have made their minds up, and the teams, riders and hundreds of thousands of spectators who enjoyed the event got it badly wrong!
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TDA, I've watched a bit & enjoyed it purely because it was in Britain, I haven't watched any other mind. Added interest to me being in our Country
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looking at the bigger picture I would've thought any lover of Cycling would support these races as a way of promoting the sport-what do I know
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If you watched it, and enjoyed it, brilliant
I doubt the result was pre-ordained, and glad Steve Cummins got the win.
I am not a cycling snob, but tuned in for the first stage, watched ten minutes and switched off again. Held about as much interest for me as a footballists derby (okay maybe slightly more than that)
ITV4 gave the Tour of Britain the coverage it deserved… second rate.
The Tour of Britain fills a hole for punters in the UK who don’t get to see pro cycling at a decent level (Unless you live in Yorkshire). But coming where it does in the calendar it is of little relevance in sporting terms. At best, it might showcase unknown
young domestic riders who might hope to get recognised by the odd second-string directeur-sportif. All those big names are all on season wind down, fulfilling the wishes of the sponsors, who eye the domestic TV coverage as easy return on their years investment.In event ranking terms it is very definately second rate. UCI class 2.HC (hors catégorie ) on the European Tour to be precise. Ranking amongst such classics (not) as the Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde, the Baloise Tour and the Tour de Wallonie.
Unfortunately the difference being, those Belgian races and the Tour de Yorkshire (which is class 2.1), occur earlier in the season, attracting the odd rider preparing for major tours (even those in the twighlight of their careers Ian), season rankings and
young riders hoping to secure team selection for their teams in major tours.Long term the Tour de Yorkshire, despite being popular with teams and riders might struggle due to fixture congestion (And total lack of support from British Cycling who had their noses well-and-truly rubbed in it).
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Couldn't have put it better myself, Runrig.
TtDA.....(and Nellie)......the Tour of Britain (and the Tour of Yorkshire) are an attempt to capitalise on the popularity of cycling in Europe. But both will fail because of the complete lack of history of road racing within the UK......as Runrig says, entirely
due to British Cycling, who have always actively denegrated the sport, in favour of track cycling and the odd time trial.BC have reluctantly been forced to take note of road racing due to the massive input of advertising funds from Sky. They will however return to their stale roots when that (inevitably) disappears.
The 'stars' that have made their names by such funding are always drawn back to their roots (Wiggins, Cavendish, Thomas etc) of track cycling........something that is never seen amongst European riders.......who rarely even see a track.
Races like the T of B might draw an audience, especially when restricted to a town centre, where the compressed length of the course can give the impression of 'big crowds', but a few housewives taking their kids out for a walk (and who will have the attitude
of "I've seen a bike race, so won't bother again") are no comparison to the hardened cycling fans seen in Europe. Which, by the way, vastly outnumber the part time 'fans' in the UK.0 -
Runrig, some of those racing were using it as their preparation for the forthcoming World Championships, so it was of significance to them.
At least ITV4 gave it a fair bit of coverage, a lot more than they did for the Vuelta.
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Ian your last comment just goes to show what a blinkered view you have. There were as good a number of spectators on the climbs and at the finishes as there appeared to be on the Vuelta. Also you critasied the final stage in London. From what I saw it was virtually the same in format and road layout as the Madrid stage of the Vuelta, and just as sunny too.
BTW, how do you know that the Managers of the GC teams in the Grand Tours don't get together before each event and sort out between them selves who's going to win before the start of each, as you were inferring has happened before the ToB?
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A couple of years ago I went out to watch a cycle race (probably Tour of Britain) pass through and found the show by the vehicles and motorcycles managing the race far more interesting than the cyclists.
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