Tour of Britain

File:Tour of britain.gif

Tour of Britain logo

The Tour of Britain is the name of a cycle race, conducted over several stages, in which participants race from place to place across parts of Great Britain.

The race features teams from Scotland and Wales, as well as a Great Britain team, but in recent years no English team has been entered. Teams from outside the UK compete too, for examplein 2007 Team T-Mobile will take part.

The latest version, a professional stage race, was first run in 2004, but the history of the event dates back to 1951.

The Tour of Britain is part of the UCI's European Tour.

History

The Tour of Britain has had different names, because it has had different sponsors,

• the Daily Express Tour of Britain (1951-1955)

Scot Ian Steel won the 1951 edition, in which Jimmy Savile (later to become a famous DJ and television personality) also raced. The 1955 edition was organised by the British League of Racing Cyclists.

• the Milk Race (1958-1993)

This was a two-week amateur event but from about 1983, the event was also opened to professional teams. The Milk Marketing Board also sponsored the Scottish Milk Race, a smaller tour in Scotland.

• the Kellogg's Tour (1987-1994)

Winners included: Malcolm Elliot (1988), Robert Millar (1989), Phil Anderson (1991, 1993), Max Sciandri (1992) and, in its final year, Maurizio Fondriest.

• the Prudential plc-sponsored PruTour (1998-1999)

Stuart O'Grady (Crédit Agricole) won the 1998 edition; Marc Wauters (Rabobank) won in 1999.

The modern tour

Stage 3 of the 2005 race passing through Honley, near Huddersfield

2004 Tour of Britain

The first edition of the latest version of the Tour of Britain took place over five days in early September 2004, organised by SweetSpot in collaboration with British Cycling. Sponsored by the organisers of London's 2012 Olympics bid, it was well-promoted and attracted a number of well-known teams such as T-Mobile (Germany) and U.S. Postal Service (USA). This was partly due to it being a 2.3 category race on the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) calendar.

The 2004 route climaxed with a 45 mile (72 km) criterium in London, where tens of thousands of spectators saw a long break by Londoner Bradley Wiggins last until the penultimate lap, with Enrico Degano of Team Barloworld taking the sprint on the line. The Colombian Mauricio Ardila, of Chocolade Jacques, won the Tour overall.

Stages

Stage	Date	Start	Finish	Distance	Winner		Team	Time
1	1 September 2004	Manchester	Manchester	207 km	Stefano Zanini	Italy	QSD	5h 01'23"
2	2 September 2004	Leeds	Sheffield	172 km	Mauricio Ardila	Colombia	CHO	4h 26'26"
3	3 September 2004	Bakewell	Nottingham	192 km	Tom Boonen	Belgium	QSD	4h 30'55"
4	4 September 2004	Newport	Newport	160 km	Mauricio Ardila	Colombia	CHO	3h 32'37"
5	5 September 2004	London	London	72 km	Enrico Degano	Italy	TBL	1h 27'30"

Final General Classification

	Name	Nationality	Team	Time
1	Mauricio Ardila	Colombia	CHO	18h 58'36"
2	Julian Dean	New Zealand	C.A	+ 00'12"
3	Nick Nuyens	Belgium	QSD	+ 00'17"

2005 Tour of Britain

See the main article: Tour of Britain 2005

The 2005 race was run as a UCI 2.1 category in six stages starting in Glasgow on 30 August and finishing in London on 4 September:

Stages

Stage	Date	Start	Finish	Distance	Winner		Team	Time
1	30 August 2005	Glasgow	Castle Douglas	185 km	Nick Nuyens	Belgium	QSI	4h 24'32"
2	31 August 2005	Carlisle	Blackpool	160 km	Roger Hammond	United Kingdom	GBR	3h 58'48"
3	1 September 2005	Leeds	Sheffield	160 km	Luca Paolini	Italy	QSI	4h 27'24"
4	2 September 2005	Buxton	Nottingham	195 km	Serguei Ivanov	Russia	TMO	4h 24'17"
5	3 September 2005	Birmingham	Birmingham	(ITT) 4 km	Nick Nuyens	Belgium	QSI	4'54.06"
6	4 September 2005	London	London	60 km	Luca Paolini	Italy	QSI	1h 30'54"

Final General Classification

	Name	Nationality	Team	Time
1	Nick Nuyens	Belgium	QSI	19h 04'32"
2	Michael Blaudzun	Denmark	CSC	+ 00'08"
3	Javier Cherro Molina	Spain	ECV	+ 00'22"

2006 Tour of Britain

The Tour of Britain 2006 took place from the 29 August to 3 September as a UCI category 2.1 event. Martin Pedersen and Andy Schleck of Team CSC won the overall and King of the Mountains classification, respectively. Mark Cavendish (T-Mobile Team) won the points classification and Johan Van Summeren (Davitamon-Lotto) captured the sprints classification.

Stages

Stage	Date	Start	Finish	Distance	Winner		Team	Time
1	29 August 2006	Glasgow	Castle Douglas	162.6 km	Martin Pedersen	Denmark	CSC	4h 03'38"
2	30 August 2006	Blackpool	Liverpool	163 km	Roger Hammond	United Kingdom	GBR	3h 54'15"
3	31 August 2006	Bradford	Sheffield	180 km	Filippo Pozzato	Italy	QSI	4h 28'18"
4	1 September 2006	Wolverhampton	Birmingham	130.3 km	Frederik Willems	Belgium	JAC	2h 54'12"
5	2 September 2006	Rochester	Canterbury	152.6 km	Francesco Chicchi	Italy	QSI	4h 24'42"
6	3 September 2006	Greenwich	The Mall	82 km	Tom Boonen	Belgium	QSI	2h 00'41"

Final General Classification

	Name	Nationality	Team	Time
1	Martin Pedersen	Denmark	CSC	21h 51'24"
2	Luis Pasamontes	Spain	UNI	+ 00'51"
3	Filippo Pozzato	Italy	QSI	+ 02'11"

2007 Tour of Britain

The Tour of Britain is being extended to seven days for 2007, with the extra day being used to run a stage in Somerset for the first time.

Instead of finishing in London, the 2007 race will start in London and finish in Glasgow, which is using the event to boost its bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

External links

• Tour of Britain