Tour of Britain 2010

[Reverend_T_Preedy]

Garmin team for TOB:

Murilo Fischer; Robbie Hunter; Dan Martin; Martijn Maaskant; Cameron Meyer; Travis Meyer

Reserves: Timothy Duggan; Ricardo Van der Velde; Johan van Summeren

 

[Reverend_T_Preedy]

More teams announced for TOB:

Team HTC – Columbia:
Bert Grabsch; André Greipel; Tony Martin; Marco Pinotti; Mark Renshaw; Michael Rogers
Reserves: Michael Albasini; Leigh Howard; Marcel Sieberg

Skil – Shimano:
Roy Curvers; Bert De Backer; Koen De Kort; Jin Long; Kenny Van Hummel; Robert Wagner
Reserves: Mitchell Docker; Steve Houanard; Tom Veelers

Topsport Vlaanderen – Mercator:
Pieter Jacobs; Stijn Joseph; Gert Steurs; Michael Van Staeyen; Kristof Vandewalle; Pieter Vanspeybrouck
Reserves: Kenny De Ketele; Stijn Neirynck; Maarten Neyens

HTC have sent a very, very strong team. Greipel for the win then...

Where's Thomas De Gendt? Gutted.

 

[euanli]

Interesting Renshaw isn't going to the Vuelta with Cav. I think that is an indication Cav will not complete the whole of the Vuelta and is purely there for Worlds preparation

 

[Chuffy]

I don't think we exaggerate the steepness and recall European pros having to get off and push on the Trough of Bowland which is used on the first stage of this year's race. In comparison to the Alps and Pyrenees, our climbs are short and sharp and the Hardknott Pass is 33% in parts (I have never even considered taking my car over the Wrynose and Hardknott Passes never mind cycling over them).

I bet ACF thinks that 33% refers to Cadel's Hct...

I could plan a route around Devon that would break the knees of a goat within 50 miles...

It would be a shame to lose the ToB. It's not a great race, sure, but it's the only big stage race we have and road cycling needs all the help it can get.

 

[Derrick]

There is absolutely no reason why we couldn't have an extremely lumpy Tour of Britain. Those of us who remember the Bill Bradley era will also remember the pictures of professional riders being forced to walk, not for a hundred yards or so as in the flemish classic climbs but for half a mile.
It's worth repeating that the Black Mountain,singular, is nowhere near the Black Mountains,plural but should the organizers choose to schedule a stage around the Black Mountains it would be perfectly simple to incorporate endless 3 to 4km around 14% climbs joined by absolutely suicidal descents and if they chose to finish that stage up the hill I'm looking at as I type which is about 5km with two good stretches of 33% then the field would finish splattered all over the countryside! The climbs might not be long but there would be none of the "settle in and climb at you own speed " stuff that is so frequently seen on the longer more regularly graded climbs.
However it's not the course but the riders that make a good race and I fear that racing seems to have become far too cozy.
Regarding the Tour Down Under and indeed many of the very early season "races" we see now are only patronized because the teams see them as a way of getting in early season training in good weather at the expense of the race organizers rather than pay for training camps out of the team budget.

 

[Jamsque]

HTC have sent a squad that could very easily dominate this race. I really hope it doesn't just devolve in to HTC vs Sky for every single stage, and the overall. Greipel should win 4 or 5 stages without really trying.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Why are Columbia even bothering? The ToB organisers may as well give them the wins now and save everybody the effort of riding for hundreds of km.

I hate that team and hope that they, and their annoying philosophy, which is spreading like wildfire through other tedious teams, disappear from the world of cycling sooner rather than later.

 

[R.0.t.O]

I've only just looked at the route map, but I'm pretty sure that they don't go over the black mountain as suggested. The do cross the range of mountains called black mountain, but not the mountain itself. The mountain itself is right on the border between England and Wales.

Confusingly enough, the Black Mountain itself is in the Back Mountains (Border) but the Tour actually goes through the Black Mountain (note no 's') range, which nice and confusingly is right next door.

Ha ha, everybody's confused now! The Black Mt (y Mynydd Du) is basically a massif in Carmarthenshire, with a main road pass A4069 across the middle which everyone calls The Black Mt (or The Blacks). It's a longish climb - you could say 14km but only the last 6km are at any major gradient and even then only 6% or so. You'll never see a Schleck-Contador battle up there!

Black Mountains (Mynyddoedd Duon) are a range of mountains in Powys & Monmouthshire which have quite a few good passes some of which have been used before in the ToB/PruTour/Kelloggs. If you strung together Gospel Pass-Llangynidr Mt-Tumble and finished immediately after the descent in Blaenavon then you'd have the closest Britain could claim to a proper 'moutain stage' - it would be a bit like a middle-mountains Vosges stage from the Tour.

I think the tourist information people prefer to lump them all in together as the Brecon Beacons, makes things a bit easier like.

(just to add, that probably the reason for the confusing names for places so geographically close together is that Carmarthenshire is predominantly Welsh-speaking and Powys/Monmouthshire are predominantly English-speaking so the issue probably never came up much)

 

[Derrick]

I have to agree with L.S. that the current approach to racing as adopted by H.T.C. is making for very boring and predictable racing but I must ask why do other teams let them get away with it? As I mentioned in my previous post racing is becoming far too cozy and I imagine it suits everybody who had to earn their living on a bike last week and will be expected to do the same next week. It's an easy option.I know that in conversations with my {old} contemporaries we just don't understand it. H.T.C. get away with murder.

 

[Reverend_T_Preedy]

To be honest, I can't see Greipel winning in Swansea which is where the race will be decided in my opinion. I'd have liked to see them go up Constitution Hill a few more times but if the riders attack it then I see it being a smaller group getting to the finishing and putting 20-30 seconds into any chasing pack.

The stages through the south west have some decent hills that could make for some interesting racing but they're then followed by some easy terrain menaing the early hills are pointless.

I know the TOB is funded by Local Authorities but surely they could have used some of the areas they're racing through a little better (South Wales and south-west especially.

 

[Jamsque]

So here's my idea for sorting out the Tour of Britain:

First, drop the pretence, and re-name it the Tour of England, because that's what it is. Second, start a Tour of Wales and a Tour of Scotland going as well. Same kind of 5/6/7 stage race, but with some hilly stages that will actually produce time gaps. The Tour of England can remain the sprint-heavy affair it seems to want to be.

Then (and this is the tricky part) get the Tour of Ireland on board and create a unified set of rules for the four races and classifications that carry over all four. You'd have to call it something neutral like the 'Tour of the Isles' because the Irish wouldn't stand for 'Tour of Britain' (and rightly so). Maybe get the Tour of Ireland to commit to running a 'Peace Race'-esque stage finishing in Belfast every year, or have one of the other three tours run a stage in Northern Ireland every year so that everyone gets a slice of the pie.

You could run two of the tours in June, with a week break between them, and then the other two in August, so they don't clash with the Grand Tours. Obviously this is pure fantasy, but I think it would be fantastic. If there was a solid three months of cycling coverage in the UK every summer, with two domestic tours, then the TdF, then two more domestic tours, I think the sport would really start to take off.

I don't think there is room in the cycling world for any more Grand Tours, so we need to look to other formats to try and produce a new kind of racing. I think four short tours, each with their own set of self-contained classifications, but also each contributing to an overall set of classifications, could be really interesting.

 

[Reverend_T_Preedy]

So here's my idea for sorting out the Tour of Britain:

First, drop the pretence, and re-name it the Tour of England, because that's what it is. Second, start a Tour of Wales and a Tour of Scotland going as well. Same kind of 5/6/7 stage race, but with some hilly stages that will actually produce time gaps. The Tour of England can remain the sprint-heavy affair it seems to want to be.

Then (and this is the tricky part) get the Tour of Ireland on board and create a unified set of rules for the four races and classifications that carry over all four. You'd have to call it something neutral like the 'Tour of the Isles' because the Irish wouldn't stand for 'Tour of Britain' (and rightly so). Maybe get the Tour of Ireland to commit to running a 'Peace Race'-esque stage finishing in Belfast every year, or have one of the other three tours run a stage in Northern Ireland every year so that everyone gets a slice of the pie.

You could run two of the tours in June, with a week break between them, and then the other two in August, so they don't clash with the Grand Tours. Obviously this is pure fantasy, but I think it would be fantastic. If there was a solid three months of cycling coverage in the UK every summer, with two domestic tours, then the TdF, then two more domestic tours, I think the sport would really start to take off.

I don't think there is room in the cycling world for any more Grand Tours, so we need to look to other formats to try and produce a new kind of racing. I think four short tours, each with their own set of self-contained classifications, but also each contributing to an overall set of classifications, could be really interesting.

With the exception of the bit about calling the Tour of Britain in its current state the Tour of England because that's what it is, I like the idea of that. It doesn't go to Wales or Scotland that much because the Local Authorities are unwilling to pay for it. Now, if they changed the funding structure I'm sure any organiser in their right mind would want to include more of Scotland and Wales, especially the hilly bits!

The main problem with your plan is that in the current climate with funding cuts to Local Authorities and the lack of potential private sponsors, these ideas are not going to happen.

 

[catmiles]

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?

Looking forward to it

I think the TDF may have been to early for Team SKY this year but Tour of Britain may be an opportunistic moment to prove what they can do and hopefully a bit of homeground support will help, like the Tour of OZ.

 

[Jamsque]

With the exception of the bit about calling the Tour of Britain in its current state the Tour of England because that's what it is, I like the idea of that. It doesn't go to Wales or Scotland that much because the Local Authorities are unwilling to pay for it. Now, if they changed the funding structure I'm sure any organiser in their right mind would want to include more of Scotland and Wales, especially the hilly bits!

The main problem with your plan is that in the current climate with funding cuts to Local Authorities and the lack of potential private sponsors, these ideas are not going to happen.

Oh I know the reason the ToB doesn't go in to Wales or Scotland much (if at all), and I agree that money is the big problem both with the ToB and with my Tours of the Isles idea. I do hope that more localised races might be able to get more localised sponsorship, though. I can imagine the Scottish Tourist Board supporting the Tour of Scotland, for example (especially with an SNP government!), and I bet you could get Irn Bru or the Scotsman to sponsor a jersey, and so on.

 

[bobbins]

I love the Tour of Britain. Every year the organisers beg and scrape enough sponsorship to stage the event, towns pay to be start and finish towns which basically bankrolls the event.

Then, unless it visits each and every town in the entire UK without exception, the internet is full of cretins who moan that it isn't a real tour of britain unless it visits (insert town name here).

This race is the latest incarnation of a tour of britain and does its best to take cycling to the masses despite a whole ream of obstacles. It'll soon die on its **** when the LDAs are scrapped and then we'l have no pro races in the UK. Then you'll all moan that there isn't a tour of britain.

It's the best race that they can put on so just get over yourselves and either watch it, or don't. Take your choice. 'Suggestions' like the one about having a tour of each country within britain are just a fantasy. Towns don't want bike races, the general public don't want bike races and from reading various forums, nor do plenty of cyclists.

 

[R.0.t.O]

So here's my idea for sorting out the Tour of Britain:

First, drop the pretence, and re-name it the Tour of England, because that's what it is. Second, start a Tour of Wales and a Tour of Scotland going as well. Same kind of 5/6/7 stage race, but with some hilly stages that will actually produce time gaps. The Tour of England can remain the sprint-heavy affair it seems to want to be.

Then (and this is the tricky part) get the Tour of Ireland on board and create a unified set of rules for the four races and classifications that carry over all four. You'd have to call it something neutral like the 'Tour of the Isles' because the Irish wouldn't stand for 'Tour of Britain' (and rightly so). Maybe get the Tour of Ireland to commit to running a 'Peace Race'-esque stage finishing in Belfast every year, or have one of the other three tours run a stage in Northern Ireland every year so that everyone gets a slice of the pie.

You could run two of the tours in June, with a week break between them, and then the other two in August, so they don't clash with the Grand Tours. Obviously this is pure fantasy, but I think it would be fantastic. If there was a solid three months of cycling coverage in the UK every summer, with two domestic tours, then the TdF, then two more domestic tours, I think the sport would really start to take off.

I don't think there is room in the cycling world for any more Grand Tours, so we need to look to other formats to try and produce a new kind of racing. I think four short tours, each with their own set of self-contained classifications, but also each contributing to an overall set of classifications, could be really interesting.

I love it. Let's have a Celtic Tour - the transfers by boat would still be shorter than most of the driving transfers in the ToB. First year run anticlockwise Scotland->NI->Eire->Wales, then alternate directions TdF-style, with occasional visits to Isle of Man, Cornwall and even Brittany. Kerry mountains in the middle of the race each time, then alternating between the Scottish Highlands and the Welsh Valleys for the decisive mountain stages.

 

[Jamsque]

I love it. Let's have a Celtic Tour - the transfers by boat would still be shorter than most of the driving transfers in the ToB. First year run anticlockwise Scotland->NI->Eire->Wales, then alternate directions TdF-style, with occasional visits to Isle of Man, Cornwall and even Brittany. Kerry mountains in the middle of the race each time, then alternating between the Scottish Highlands and the Welsh Valleys for the decisive mountain stages.

Hey, this is great! Much better than my idea. Eff the English, we'll have our OWN bike race! With blackjack! And hookers!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Hey, this is great! Much better than my idea. Eff the English, we'll have our OWN bike race! With blackjack! And hookers!

Isn't York in England? Could you then lay claim to every Tour in Britain if you were resident in England and identified yourself as a Celt?

 

[Jamsque]

York is in England, but it isn't Celtic at all.

 

[doddy13]

Why does the Tour of Britain spend too much time in England.. money. If that's where the money is, Sweetspot will follow.

Slowly the race is growing and getting bigger, but until the sport is really big here we have to put up with what we've got. There'll be a day where the TOB can go where it want - but we're not there yet, and won't be for a few years.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

York is in England, but it isn't Celtic at all.

no, I know that, but your previous post implied you considered yourself to be Celtic, or at least non-English, as you used "our own race" to describe a hypothetical Celtic Tour. I therefore took your location - in England - to mean that you would identify with a Celtic Tour, but since you were in England you could claim ownership of the present Tour of Britain in its England-centric model.

Unless you were being sarcastic and I simply didn't get that.

 

[Jamsque]

no, I know that, but your previous post implied you considered yourself to be Celtic, or at least non-English, as you used "our own race" to describe a hypothetical Celtic Tour. I therefore took your location - in England - to mean that you would identify with a Celtic Tour, but since you were in England you could claim ownership of the present Tour of Britain in its England-centric model.

Unless you were being sarcastic and I simply didn't get that.

I did not even realise I still had my location set to York. I went to university in York and I now live in Hampshire, but I was born and raised in Edinburgh.

 

[Bromers]

Im really looking forward to the ToB as it's one of the few races that is televised over here.

 

[Mambo95]

Im really looking forward to the ToB as it's one of the few races that is televised over here.

It's one of the few televised on Freeview, you mean. Eurosport cover pretty much every major race.

 

[ferryman]

Let's just call it the Tour of England and call the whole thing off! Pesky Celts