Strongest ever line-up confirmed for Tour of Britain

This year’s Tour of Britain will boast its strongest line-up yet, with no fewer than 10 UCI WorldTour teams set to start the race in Glasgow on Sunday 4 September.

They will include Dimension Data, whose Edvald Boasson Hagen won the race for the second time last year – his first overall victory was with HTC-Colombia in 2009 – raising the prospect of Mark Cavendish also riding after his return from the Rio Olympuis.

They will be joined by Team Sky, Movistar Team, BMC Racing Team, Lotto-Soudal, LottoNL-Jumbo and Cannondale Drapac, all of whom raced last year, as well as Giant Alpecin, Orica-BikeExchange and Trek-Segafredo.

Once again, Sir Bradley Wiggins looks set to ride the race with his Team Wiggins, whose Owain Doull took the points jersey last year, while One Pro Cycling – winner of the mountains and sprints contests in 2016 through Pete Williams – are among the UCI Professional Continental teams confirmed alongside Caja Rural-Serguros RGA and Wanty-Groupe Gobert team.

Also competing will be An Post-Chain Reaction and the Great Britain National Team, plus three British UCI Continental teams which will be awarded their places after the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic a week on Sunday, co-organised by Tour of Britain organisers SweetSpot.

The five teams vying for those places are JLT Condor, Madison Genesis, NFTO, Pedal Heaven and Team Raleigh-GAC

Race director Mick Bennett commented; "This is a world-class line-up of teams entirely befitting of the Tour of Britain's continuing growth in stature and importance on the global cycling calendar.

"Half of the teams selected are currently racing in the Tour de France, giving British fans a taste of the high-level of competition which they can look forward to watching this September.”

Jonny Clay, British Cycling director of cycle sport and membership, added: "The fact that 10 World Tour teams have confirmed their place on the start line in Glasgow at this year's Tour of Britain is a fantastic endorsement and underlines the strong reputation that the event now holds within an ever increasingly competitive international calendar.

“We are greatly looking forward to the spectacle of a world class peloton racing on British roads this September.