Tour of Britain 15/09 - 22/09/13 (2.1)

[Pricey_sky]

With less than a week to go I thought I'd start this one off. Apologies for the stage profile quality but the official Tour tracker app made every little climb seem like Ventoux. I've also included the stats for every climb worth mentioning.

TV: Every stage live on Eurosport and ITV4

Notable riders include Wiggins, Quintana, Cavendish, Petacchi, Velits, Dowsett, Rojas, Ciolek, Viviani and D Martin.

Preliminary startlist here: http://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/files/documents/ToB_2013_Provisional_Rider_List.pdf

Stage 1: Peebles - Drumlanrig Castle - 209km.



Stage 2: Carlisle - Kendal - 186km.

Honister Pass: 3.8km @ 6.2%



Stage 3: Knowsley ITT - 16km.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Stage 4: Stoke-on-Trent - Llanberis - 188km

Groes 3km@5%
Llansannan 2.2km@5.5%




Stage 5: Machynlleth - Caerphilly - 177km

Caerphilly Mountain 2.4km@6.7%



Stage 6: Sidmouth - Haytor - 137km

The queen stage with an 'MTF' on Haytor.

Mamhead 2.4km@7.2%
Haytor 5.8km@5.9%

 

[Pricey_sky]

Stage 7: Epsom - Guilford - 155km

Cold Harbour 2km@6%
Barhatch Lane 2.5km@6%



Stage 8: London - 88km

10 laps of an 8.8km circuit around the city centre, Starting and finishing on Whitehall.

 

[willbick]

nice one bud. i expect most forumites will ignore the ToB on account of its Britishness! Looking forward to it. Allez Sir Wiggo! etc

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Pirazzi or Madrazo ftw.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

nice one bud. i expect most forumites will ignore the ToB on account of its Britishness! Looking forward to it. Allez Sir Wiggo! etc

Actually, like the Tour of California, the race typically gets quite a lot of attention on the boards relative to its status on the world calendar due to the large number of British posters. I like the addition of the TT early this year, but generally this is a quite interesting middling rouleur to puncheur's type race with the small teams and some quite nice moderately hilly stages. The "MTF" may be a bit of a misnomer but it's enough to enable some to at least try to attack in a race with 6-man teams. After all, with an 8 or 9 man team it might be too easy (on past parcours it has been for 6, thinking of was it 2009 when Boasson Hagen won like five stages in a row?) but trying to control a race all day with maximum 5 riders over some of the hills they have at their disposal can make for some interesting races.

Sure the coverage & commentary will be painfully Sky-centric to the point of sycophancy due to their position in the sport in Britain, but the race will be a decent, organically growing stage race which is growing yet still way short of offering the best parcours that the country would have to offer if the right places were paying the money.

 

[The Hitch]

nice one bud. i expect most forumites will ignore the ToB on account of its Britishness! Looking forward to it. Allez Sir Wiggo! etc

lol. Ive never seen more obvious trolling

 

[Pricey_sky]

nice one bud. i expect most forumites will ignore the ToB on account of its Britishness! Looking forward to it. Allez Sir Wiggo! etc

Well he should at least win the TT, with only a week between that stage and the Worlds he should be nearing his peak. It's not very long but the middle 11km's will be fast and not very technical which should play into his hands.

 

[avanti]

What is the maximum gradient on Honister Pass (stage 2)? I recall it being 1 in 3-1/2 (16%).

 

[Pricey_sky]

What is the maximum gradient on Honister Pass (stage 2)? I recall it being 1 in 3-1/2 (16%).

It has a stretch of around 20% and the middle km of it is around 13%. It is a tester by British standards.

 

[murali]

sorry to ask this, but do you have the images anywhere else. My network chaps think that imageshack contains only porn, and have put it in the porn.txt of squid

 

[greenedge]

I'm hoping for Quintana to attack like crazy on any stage he can.
Also Pirazzi and Visconti.
I think Euser could go ok here.

Also i am hoping for at least one of Viviani, Hoff, Ciolek or Haussler to beat Cav once- how many stages should end in sprints?

 

[murali]

Also i am hoping for at least one of Viviani, Hoff, Ciolek or Haussler to beat Cav once- how many stages should end in sprints?

I just want cav to take two sprints only. The rest of the sprints can be taken by anyone else.

 

[del1962]

Be interesting how the Yates twins do.

 

[Pricey_sky]

sorry to ask this, but do you have the images anywhere else. My network chaps think that imageshack contains only porn, and have put it in the porn.txt of squid

Just go onto the official ToB site murali, all the info will be on the stages tab across the top.

http://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/home.php#.Ui2VGn9wb4g

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

The Dartmoor stage is a definite wasted opportunity, instead of going all the way up around Tiverton they could have gone straight from Sidmouth to Exeter and spent longer on Dartmoor where there are a number of excellent options for short, steep climbs. Instead it just looks like being a massive group still together at the bottom of Haytor, a real shame.

 

[del1962]

The Dartmoor stage is a definite wasted opportunity, instead of going all the way up around Tiverton they could have gone straight from Sidmouth to Exeter and spent longer on Dartmoor where there are a number of excellent options for short, steep climbs. Instead it just looks like being a massive group still together at the bottom of Haytor, a real shame.

I also think the Cumbrian section is a missed oppurunity, instead of going down to Kendal, the could have gone east and finnished at the Hartside Cafe.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Also i am hoping for at least one of Viviani, Hoff, Ciolek or Haussler to beat Cav once- how many stages should end in sprints?

It looks as though stages 1,7 and 8 should all be bunch sprints. OPQS will be surely looking at winning all of those. If Cav has an off day they also have Petacchi and it will be good to see those two work together.

 

[SafeBet]

It looks as though stages 1,7 and 8 should all be bunch sprints. OPQS will be surely looking at winning all of those. If Cav has an off day they also have Petacchi and it will be good to see those two work together.

Is this the first race with Alejet leading out for Cav?

 

[Netserk]

Is this the first race with Alejet leading out for Cav?

Yes. Since the Tour Cav has only raced Post Danmark Rundt, where Peta wasn't participating.

 

[JRanton]

Yes. Since the Tour Cav has only raced Post Danmark Rundt, where Peta wasn't participating.

She was at home with the kids, that's why.

 

[Netserk]

She was at home with the kids, that's why.

That's why I called him that. Much better nickname when he is the leadout man of Cav

 

[postmanhat]

For anyone with a passing interest in architecture, the final stage coincides with the open house weekend

http://www.londonopenhouse.org/

My first day out in Big London for a few years. Can't wait

 

[willbick]

I am expecting Quintana to be marginally more anonymous than Froome at the US pro challenge. The good news is Im usually wrong

 

[happychappy]

Wonder if Lord Wiggins will try to do anything, or will he putter along with a sour look on his face like the other year he rode ToB.