Canary Wharf the backdrop as Halfords Tour Series gets under way tonight

The Halfords Tour Series kicks off tonight on a tight, one-kilometre circuit around the offices, bars and shops of London’s Canary Wharf, giving cycling fans in the capital – and many more through TV – the chance to have a first look at our very own Kuota-road.cc team.

While Canary Wharf may not quite be Rapha Condor Sharp’s back yard, they are the designated home team for this round, and it’s probably fair to say that many of the cyclists working in the offices in the area would fall into the clothing sponsor’s ideal demographic.

Whether they’ll be able to take full advantage of being on home roads remains to be seen – some of the riders may be suffering the after-effects of a long trip back from the Far East, where British Road Race Champion Kristian House last week scored a stage win in the Tour of Japan.

As in the debut Tour Series last year, the competition pits team against team for the title of overall champion at the end of the ten hour-long races, but there’s an added twist this year with Boardman Bikes sponsoring a new sprint prize, which should ensure an even more frenetic pace as riders seek to take the points on offer during the intermediate sprints.

Besides Rapha Condor Sharp and Kuot-road.cc, eight other teams are contesting the right to be called series champions this year – the others being Team Ireland, Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta, Endura Racing, Team Raleigh, Pendragon Le Col Colnago, Sigma Sport Specialized and Team Corley Cycles.

If you’re anywhere near Chester on 21 June, that happens to be the round when Kuota-road.cc is the home team – the bike brand is based locally – so make a date in your diary now and get along to cheer on the boys.

If you aren’t able to catch tonight’s race live, you can watch the action tomorrow evening at 7pm on ITV4, and the broadcaster will be showing highlights of each race in the series the evening after it takes place.

As if that weren’t enough, for all but the first and last races, we will have some Tour Series-related goodies up for grabs, so keep an eye out for those here on road.cc soon.

The full calendar is as follows:

2010 Halfords Tour Series Schedule

Round 1  Tue 25th May    Canary Wharf
Round 2  Thu 27th May    Durham
Round 3  Tue 1st June    Portsmouth
Round 4  Thu 3rd June    Exeter
Round 5  Tue 8th June    Southport
Round 6  Thu 10th June   Kettering
Round 7  Tue 15th June   Peterborough
Round 8  Thu 17th June   Stoke-on-Trent
Round 9  Mon 21st June   Chester
Round 10 Thu 24th June   Woking