Tour of Britain 2010

[MartinGT]

I have looked on the webby and it only shows a few teams, however I have read Wiggins is riding it. I am assuming Sky will be putting the likes of Kennaugh in?

When will a list of riders be up and if now, where can I find em?

Cheers?

 

[euanli]

Probably not for a while I'd expect. Once we knew Vuelta squads.

That said since the Tour of Britain doesn't actually tour Britain, I ain't too interested.

 

[auscyclefan94]

WE are going to see some of the big mtn passes of the world with a high quality field in the tour of britainia!

This race is no match for the tdu especially with having guys like Armstrong, Evans and Valverde in there.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

The TDU and the Tour of Britain are equally worthless ACF.

At least. I think I don't speak for myself when I say most people couldn't care less about TDU

 

[Moviefan1203]

The only thing I like about the Tour Down Under is that it kicks off the cycling season, unfortunately there isn't else much to get excited about it. The Tour of Britain is a slightly more interesting race, but lately not by much.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I would like to add, before ACF does, I also think the ENECO Tour is pretty worthless and not better than britain or TDU

 

[salixcycling]

I have looked on the webby and it only shows a few teams ... When will a list of riders be up and if now, where can I find em?

Cheers?

The Tour of Britain website doesn't list the main teams, oddly. A decent sounding list is http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/451342/2010-tour-of-britain-route-revealed.html

(Doesn't look like much of the info you want will be available much in advance.)

I don't think anyone is claiming this race is important on the global stage, but it serves its purpose very well.

 

[Jamsque]

Yeah, the ToB isn't an upstart like Cali that claims to be bigger than it is. It's a small race, sitting in a fairly inconspicuous part of the calendar, and it does exactly what it is supposed to do: lets some of the smaller British squads get a good showing and provide some entertaining racing for the British public.

I haven't looked at the route, but I'm hoping they've at least made an effort to put some difficult stages in this year. In the past I think the race has really suffered from a lack of climbing, although given Britain's geography the race organisers have a tough task.

[edit]Eh, after looking at the website it looks like this year may not be much better. Stage 3 has a fairly tough-looking hill, but a long way from the finish, and that's about it for real climbing in the race. If any of these profiles were put forward as stages in a Grand Tour, or even a Pro Tour race, you would call them as obvious bunch sprint finishes. Hopefully the relatively weak field will let some breaks stay away so there is some sort of GC action, but even then the last three stages are all pancake-flat.

OH WELL. I guess we have to wait for a Tour of Scotland to see some UK racing with actual hills in it.

 

[icefire]

Yeah, the ToB isn't an upstart like Cali that claims to be bigger than it is. It's a small race, sitting in a fairly inconspicuous part of the calendar, and it does exactly what it is supposed to do: lets some of the smaller British squads get a good showing and provide some entertaining racing for the British public.

I haven't looked at the route for this year, but I'm hoping they've at least made an effort to put some difficult stages in this year. In the past I think the race has really suffered from a lack of climbing, although given Britain's geography the race organisers have a tough task.

They should try muddy roads as we saw earlier this year in the Giro. There must be plenty of that in Britain.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Jamsque - the Black Mountain is pretty decent, but as you say, too far away from the finish. They have used a fairly steep cobbled hill in Swansea in the final kilometres though - it's short but very steep. Stages 6 and 7 in East Anglia at least offer the possibility of echelons, since those areas are very flat and essentially the same landmass as the Netherlands. On the other hand, it's only really the first half of stage 6 that's along the coast. Colour me unimpressed with the list of teams too - all the ProTour teams I don't want to see, like Sky, Columbia and Garmin. No French teams, none of the Italian ProConti teams who provided entertainment the last few years. All boring Anglophone teams and a couple from the Low Countries.

 

[Bobby G]

Jamsque - the Black Mountain is pretty decent, but as you say, too far away from the finish.

Are they going up the black mountain this year?? That's my stomping ground. Great climb and if as you say its far from the finish, what a disappointment. It could really separate a moderate (at best) field. There's a number of climbs on the welsh border that are decent. It's a shame the organiser's stray away from them. Same with some of the Scottish climbs. I'd love to see a difficult day in Scotland and in Wales!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The problem is, Britain is too big to do a decent job of in eight days, especially if you're going to persist with the stupid out-and-back stages and going to the same goddamn places every year (Blackpool, Stoke) - it limits what you can do.

If Brailsford is serious about his getting a British TDF contender then he needs to be putting pressure on British Cycling to get a couple more stage races. A Tour of Scotland and/or Tour of Wales would be ideal. There aren't anything like enough climbs to compare to Grand Tours in Britain, but you could have some nice sawtooth stages. This would at least give British pros the opportunity to develop some stage racing ability, rather than the present system which is biasing things evermore in favour of city centre crits. British Cycling doesn't seem to get that everything they've set up is good for sprinting, good for time trialling, but absolutely useless when it comes to competing for the Tour de France. They're talking up Geraint Thomas, but that would be a total waste of his natural talent which looks like being cobbles-oriented. Don't try to force a rider to be something he's not. Get the youngsters doing stage races and learning to climb and to recover - these will be much more useful than learning how to do yet another crit.

 

[luckyboy]

A bit off-topic, but do British Continental rank teams (Motorpoint, Rapha Condor) ever race in Europe? I only ever hear of them or see them on Eurosport in UK/Premier Calendar races.

 

[Mambo95]

A bit off-topic, but do British Continental rank teams (Motorpoint, Rapha Condor) ever race in Europe? I only ever hear of them or see them on Eurosport in UK/Premier Calendar races.

I don't think they do (at least not in Europe). I may be wrong. Endura Racing have done a couple of races in Europe though.

 

[luckyboy]

Ah ok. Wonder why they don't. Even just going to a few Belgian races or something..

 

[auscyclefan94]

I would like to add, before ACF does, I also think the ENECO Tour is pretty worthless and not better than britain or TDU

The TDU and the Tour of Britain are equally worthless ACF.

At least. I think I don't speak for myself when I say most people couldn't care less about TDU

Did you watch the wilunga stage this year? The crowds were amazing. It was alpe d'huez esque!

1. Has a better field!
2. Don't deprive my attempt of a dig at britain's attenpt of trying to create a quality race.

 

[Ferminal]

Is EbH going to be defending?

 

[ruswilks]

From what I remember, the problem with the route selection comes from the fact each stage is sponsored/organised to an extent by the local Regional Development Agency, who effectively buy a stage. Hence having two stages in Devon/Somerset, two in East Anglia etc whilst nothing in the North East, Scotland, and the central southern area of England (Midlands, home countries, Beds, Wilts, Hampshire etc). Again, the profiles are dictated by them, the RDAs want to showcase the towns and cities in their area, which leads to boring profiles.

British Cycling/ToB organisers need to find a way of mixing up the route within the existing organisational system, or find a new funding program which isn't so dependent on local authorities. There are also issues with road closures in the UK, the police just don't like doing it, so I imagine that plays a part in route selection - even the National TT Championship last year was run on open roads!

 

[Roland Rat]

From what I remember, the problem with the route selection comes from the fact each stage is sponsored/organised to an extent by the local Regional Development Agency, who effectively buy a stage. Hence having two stages in Devon/Somerset, two in East Anglia etc whilst nothing in the North East, Scotland, and the central southern area of England (Midlands, home countries, Beds, Wilts, Hampshire etc). Again, the profiles are dictated by them, the RDAs want to showcase the towns and cities in their area, which leads to boring profiles.

British Cycling/ToB organisers need to find a way of mixing up the route within the existing organisational system, or find a new funding program which isn't so dependent on local authorities. There are also issues with road closures in the UK, the police just don't like doing it, so I imagine that plays a part in route selection - even the National TT Championship last year was run on open roads!

Exactly right. Which has given rise to that ridiculous transfer from the south-west to near Norwich, which the organisers claim will take 3 hours. Yeah, right. Try 6.

They should include the gravel roads from the Rutland classic, or the mud roads from the hell of the east at some point.

 

[R.0.t.O]

From what I remember, the problem with the route selection comes from the fact each stage is sponsored/organised to an extent by the local Regional Development Agency, who effectively buy a stage. Hence having two stages in Devon/Somerset, two in East Anglia etc whilst nothing in the North East, Scotland, and the central southern area of England (Midlands, home countries, Beds, Wilts, Hampshire etc). Again, the profiles are dictated by them, the RDAs want to showcase the towns and cities in their area, which leads to boring profiles.

British Cycling/ToB organisers need to find a way of mixing up the route within the existing organisational system, or find a new funding program which isn't so dependent on local authorities. There are also issues with road closures in the UK, the police just don't like doing it, so I imagine that plays a part in route selection - even the National TT Championship last year was run on open roads!

This is the UK, so get used to it. The National TT champs is always run on open roads. It's the reason why they never have a TT in the Tour of Britain, the logistics are impossible. The National Escort Group and others do a great job making the most of a difficult situation getting a race to run at all.

The Black Mt is long and looks good on the profile, but it's not steep enough to break up a pro field of any kind. If you're generous you could say it's 14km long, but the first 8km averages at only a couple of % and even the steeper top section is about 5%. Constitution Hill in Swansea is more of a freak show climb really - a few hundred metres @30% on cobbles. I wish this stage had finished in Newport instead and gone over Llangynidr and the Tumble on the way - long, steep and closer to the finish. Or an old-style Milk Race stage into Aberystwyth over the Abergwesyn Pass.

The Tour will be decided on stage 4 through Devon. Lots of quick-fire climbing on small hills.

 

[The Hitch]

Did you watch the wilunga stage this year? The crowds were amazing. It was alpe d'huez esque!

1. Has a better field!
2. Don't deprive my attempt of a dig at britain's attenpt of trying to create a quality race.

WE are going to see some of the big mtn passes of the world with a high quality field in the tour of britainia!

This race is no match for the tdu especially with having guys like Armstrong, Evans and Valverde in there.

The TDU and the Tour of Britain are equally worthless ACF.

At least. I think I don't speak for myself when I say most people couldn't care less about TDU

Nah, the TDU is much better than the tour of britain. The points system for races, which the UCI created does make a difference. They give the tour down under 100 points, same as the Paris Nice, Tour of Romandie, Pais Vasco etc. Since cycling relies a lot on tradition, and since it takes place earlier in the year, the TDU wont ever be as good as those races, but the points system certainatly raises its profile.
In Tennis Wimbledon used to be the most important grand slam, way better than the others. But for a while now the point system in tennis has given equal points to all the grand slams. Now they are seen as pretty much of the same importance. A gs is a gs, doesnt matter which one. If the gov body keeps saying that races are equal, they will keep moving closer to eachother in importance.

As for the tour of britain, that is not currently an important race. Britain, or at least england, is a country quite hostile to road cycling. For the race to improve, Britain would need some "darling of the public" to compete and raise the interest of the sport. It seems that it would need to be gc contender fighting for the yellow jersey. However perhaps Cav, if he wins the green jersey, the world championships and most importantly, the 2012 olympics. Those would be 3 seperate cav road cycling stories that would make the back/ front pages of the newspapers, and they would make him one of britains best known faces. Then, Britian would take road cycling more seriously, and take the steps needed to make it a bigger race.

 

[euanli]

2. Don't deprive my attempt of a dig at britain's attenpt of trying to create a quality race.

I will. Tour of Britain is 55 years old. Tour Down Under is 11.

 

[Bobby G]

Horseshoe pass is one I'd like to see them do one day. Lovely climb.

About the RDA malarkey, hopefully that'll change next year, when the RDAs are either scrapped or significantly cut back in Camerons new Big Society agenda.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Nah, the TDU is much better than the tour of britain. The points system for races, which the UCI created does make a difference. They give the tour down under 100 points, same as the Paris Nice, Tour of Romandie, Pais Vasco etc. Since cycling relies a lot on tradition, and since it takes place earlier in the year, the TDU wont ever be as good as those races, but the points system certainatly raises its profile.
In Tennis Wimbledon used to be the most important grand slam, way better than the others. But for a while now the point system in tennis has given equal points to all the grand slams. Now they are seen as pretty much of the same importance. A gs is a gs, doesnt matter which one. If the gov body keeps saying that races are equal, they will keep moving closer to eachother in importance.

As for the tour of britain, that is not currently an important race. Britain, or at least england, is a country quite hostile to road cycling. For the race to improve, Britain would need some "darling of the public" to compete and raise the interest of the sport. It seems that it would need to be gc contender fighting for the yellow jersey. However perhaps Cav, if he wins the green jersey, the world championships and most importantly, the 2012 olympics. Those would be 3 seperate cav road cycling stories that would make the back/ front pages of the newspapers, and they would make him one of britains best known faces. Then, Britian would take road cycling more seriously, and take the steps needed to make it a bigger race.

ever wondered why tdu isn't broadcasted in europe like any other, even non pt races are?? because nobody gives a **** about it here.

the uci point system is a joke, in spetember there are going to be a couple of canadian pt races that again nobody is interested in. cycling evolves around history, story's and intense images, it's in many ways a romantic sport. none of those can be found in down under.

it reminds me of the early 90s when they had these worldcup races in the uk like rochester and leeds that again nobody cared about and those races failed miserably in the end, same with the japan cup as a world cup. nobody is talking about it anymore.

 

[Sneekes]

A bit off-topic, but do British Continental rank teams (Motorpoint, Rapha Condor) ever race in Europe? I only ever hear of them or see them on Eurosport in UK/Premier Calendar races.

I seem to recall reading that the new Raleigh team are intending to move up to Pro-continental status at some point in the near future. That would be really good for the development of road cycling in the UK IMO.