The Tour of Britain today announced that nine teams have so far confimed they will be taking part in this year's race which will starts in Scunthorpe on September 12th and finishes in London on the 19th. Sixteen teams in total will contest the race.
The nine confimed teams are:
- AG2R La Mondiale
- Agritubel
- Barloworld
- CandiTV – Marshalls Pasta
- Team Columbia – HTC
- CSF Navigare
- Team Halfords Bikehut
- Rapha – Condor
- Topsport Vlaanderen
Columbia HTC, Agritubel and AG2R will be the names to catch the eye, all three are currently racing in the Tour de France, Barloworld too have grand tour pedigree and although they missed out on a wild card entry to this year's Tour they did ride the Giro and have in Chris Froome have one of Britain's most promising riders in their ranks.
Columbia HTC are without doubt the biggest name in the hat so far and in Mark Cavendish have arguably got Britain's hottest cycling property in their ranks also. Cavendish has ridden previous Tours of Britain and given that he will have ridden both the Giro and the Tour there's got to be a reasonable chance he'll be riding this one too. The teams taking part will announce their rider rosters for the event closer to the start date.
Three British teams have so far signed up: Halfords Bike Hut, Rapha-Condor and CandiTV-Marshalls Pasta, all three boast some top line talent with Rapha's Kristian House the current national road champion.
“This year’s Tour of Britain will be fielding the best and strongest set of teams ever to take part in the event. By having such high profile teams, of which some are currently taking part in the Tour de France, spectators to this year’s Tour of Britain will be guaranteed to see the highest calibre of cycle racing ever to take place on British soil,” said Mick Bennett, Technical Director for The Tour of Britain.
“It has always been our desire to include domestic teams on The Tour of Britain, as we see these emerging cycling teams playing an essential part in helping to develop the sport in this country.”
Commenting on his team's participation in the ToB Phil Griffiths, Team Manager for CandiTV – Marshalls Pasta said:
“As a British-based team, it’s great to be racing against some of the best teams in the world on home turf. Thanks to The Tour of Britain, our team now has the chance to prove ourselves to an international audience and hope to inspire the younger generation to take up cycle racing.”
The Tour of Britain is an elite international cycle race and has been given 2.1 status by cycling’s world governing body, the UCI, as such it has been able to attract former World and Olympic champions and Tour de France stage winners and yellow jersey wearers. The race is Britain's biggest free to attend sporting event with over a million people watching its progress every year.
I have said before that a driving ban needs to be treated like a suspended sentence, breaching that ban should automatically result in jail time...
It may have been a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but that doesn't change logic. Or are you saying the Dark Side is seriously...
I've had to put my wellies and gloves back on again ... but perhaps a thoughtful consideration of the following would be helpful for those - with a...
just get a usb rechargeable light grandad
If you'd read it a bit more carefully you'll see that it also requires each new home to have at least three parking spaces. So it shouldn't be a...
It took me ages to make sense of the story, because the bit about having bike parking is irrelevant to the issue about access. ...
But how on earth do you expect people to know that's not allowed?...
Man flees after crashing into grade II listed Dorset home https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/24263845.man-flees-crashing-grade...
If plod can't get through their in their cars, then criminals will use it to evade them because heaven forbid the police should patrol on foot or...
The questions would be "who / what do the rules serve? What are we willing to pay / accept to maintain or enforce them?"...