Tour of Britain 2023 (September 3-10)

[Devil's Elbow]

Did you think the Renewi Tour and Deutschland Tour had awful routes? Well, the Tour of Britain comfortably one-ups them both with the worst stage race route I've seen in years.

Startlist

The route
Stage 1: Altrincham - Manchester, 163.6k
Some decent hills early on, but the insistence on approaching Manchester from the west means they're almost certainly too far from the finish for anything to happen except maybe cause a more reduced sprint.

Spoiler: Climbs

Werneth Low (the one after almost 40k):

Grains Bar:

Owd Betts (the one after about 85k):

Ramsbottom Rake:

Rivington Road (the one after about 115k):

Stage 2: Wrexham - Wrexham, 109.9k
The race heads to Wrexham, at the foot of the Northern Welsh mountains which are full of steep climbs. So naturally, the only stage to put here was a junior-length sprint stage.

Stage 3: Goole - Beverley, 154.7k
Sprint number three.

Stage 4: Sherwood Forest - Newark-on-Trent (166.6k)
Sprint number four.

Stage 5: Felixstowe - Felixstowe, 192.4k
Sprint number five.

Stage 6: Southend-on-Sea - Harlow, 146.2k
Sprint number six.

Seriously, what's the last time we've seen a race literally anywhere with six clear sprint stages in a row?

Stage 7: Tewkesbury - Gloucester, 170.9k
Past three-quarters of the way into the race, the riders finally encounter some hills in the final 50 kilometres of a stage. The route, which is a carbon copy of the one that was cancelled due to the National Mourning Championships last year, shouldn't be hard enough to force more than a sprint of the elites, though.

Spoiler: Climbs

Winchcombe Hill:

Crawley Hill:

Edge Hill (the final uncategorised climb): click the link

Stage 8: Margam County Park - Caerphilly, 166.8k
The final stage is actually quite good.

Spoiler: Climbs

Bwlch y Clawdd (the first real climb):

Rhigos:

Bryn Du:

Caerphilly Mountain:

 

[Didinho]

Wout said he was gonna do a leadout for Kooij in the first 6 stages and go for GC in the last 2 himself.

 

[search]

no bonus seconds either, so unless someone gets a gap somewhere, GC will solely come down to aggregated stage results for the first six days.

 

[nightowl]

There’s so many options for creating chaotic hilly/medium mountain stages in Britain, how have they come up with this bore-fest

 

[Devil's Elbow]

There’s so many options for creating chaotic hilly/medium mountain stages in Britain, how have they come up with this bore-fest

And you can't even pin it on the stage host locations. The Manchester and Gloucester stages could both be a lot harder, not to mention the laughable Wrexham stage. Then put a TT in Felixstowe and you have a good route.

 

[Didinho]

These easier hilly stages are often raced harder than harder mountains. Jumbo with Wout will make it hard enough to create chaos I think.

 

[Strawberry_Jams]

You'd even think they'd want to have a route to suit pidcock, especially considering they cancelled it last year because an old lady died, when he was on the verge of going to win. It's the least they could do.

 

[Samamba]

Wtf is this lol

 

[Izzyeviel]

six flat stages before the first real climb? We've gone back in time to the Tour's of the 2010's...

 

[Andy262]

Britain is chock full of potentially interesting places to race and they manage to cook up a dull parcours nearly every day.

 

[Vino's Mum]

they cancelled it last year because an old lady died

I had to google that… I think I might need some more coffee.

 

[Wyndbrook]

Looking at the positive
We can enjoy several days of top class sprinting from a better group ito that in Spain.
Next weekend will be exciting.
Crawley hill on stage six is three kilometres from my house.

Look out for the Ramsbottom Rake today, the percentages quoted are rubbish there is a sustained section of 25% at the top. Will at least wake a few up.

 

[Gwbert]

The last stage is a whopper though. Perfect weather in Altrincham today and looks good all week.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

We're back to the dark days of 2009 era Tour of Britain. It's wild that the last people left in Britain that don't understand what makes a selective race route in road cycling are the ones in charge of organising races.

 

[awavey]

And you can't even pin it on the stage host locations. The Manchester and Gloucester stages could both be a lot harder, not to mention the laughable Wrexham stage. Then put a TT in Felixstowe and you have a good route.

Felixstowe isnt really that big for a TT, youd need to start somewhere like Woodbridge even just to get a short TT route, and it wouldnt be that interesting because its mostly flat by the coast, and actually not terribly great countryside to look at anyway, the better coastal part would be up around Dunwich imo.

but the issue as always is money & sponsorship, theres no main sponsor for the event at all this year, which given the amount of live tv coverage seems remarkable.

Here for Stage 1 are the stage partners, Bury council, Oldham council, Salford city council, Stockport council, Trafford council, Wigan council, Manchester city council, all those councils would have provided funds to host the stage.

so funnily enough the route touch points areas for all those councils, because theyre paying for it, and is then basically constrained by doing so,

if the race is less reliant on those councils funding it, it then can go where it needs to, to make the exciting parcours you want to see, its not the whole problem obviously as even within areas where they could make an interesting route and satisfy the councils taking part, they seem to be adverse to picking a route which might split the race open, or be more challenging. Part of that I think is that the bunch sprint finishes are what these councils who host the finish request, as they focus on the excitement for their little bit of the race, and not the overall picture.

but if it was that simple and straightforward to do Im sure there would be competing organisations doing it by now.


in any case howcome its so damn sunny in Manchester ?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

That explains why they're going through those areas, but not why they don't use what those areas have to offer. It's like we've said on the Women's Tour multiple times, it's like they just draw lines between the areas that are paying without paying any mind to what is in that area. The East Anglian Women's Tour stages riding straight past the only hills in the area before a finish too dangerous for a safe sprint are particularly galling.

 

[Wyndbrook]

We're back to the dark days of 2009 era Tour of Britain. It's wild that the last people left in Britain that don't understand what makes a selective race route in road cycling are the ones in charge of organising races.

So times races get a better a better entry when the course is not to difficult.
Perhaps we are too obsessive on this forum regarding every race being hard. Would Bennett, Kooij and Gaviria be there if the sprint options were not there, I doubt it.
Start and finish town funding is literally the only thing keeping the race going and generally the local authorities like sprint finishes to create excitement. Also roads can be opened quicker if the race is more compact.

We are lucky the UK to have any top level racing at all, this years addition does not have a headline sponsor and will certainly not take place next year without one. Womens race also.
The financial climate is dire at the moment, Wiggle have just announced a 97 million loss and Ribble 5 million.
British Cycling have has not had a headline sponsor for almost two years now.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

So times races get a better a better entry when the course is not to difficult.
Perhaps we are too obsessive on this forum regarding every race being hard. Would Bennett, Kooij and Gaviria be there if the sprint options were not there, I doubt it.
Start and finish town funding is literally the only thing keeping the race going and generally the local authorities like sprint finishes to create excitement. Also roads can be opened quicker if the race is more compact.

We are lucky the UK to have any top level racing at all, this years addition does not have a headline sponsor and will certainly not take place next year without one. Womens race also.
The financial climate is dire at the moment, Wiggle have just announced a 97 million loss and Ribble 5 million.
British Cycling have has not had a headline sponsor for almost two years now.

It's not about making it harder so to speak, it's about making it better. To use the Tour of California as an example, this stage:

is far easier, but superior from a racing perspective, than this stage:

We're not talking about making a race super hard, but for example in the Colchester to Bury St Edmunds stage in the Women's Tour a couple of season ago, they literally rode past the base of this climb but categorised a neighbouring ascent which didn't have any ramps over 5%. 100m at 10% really isn't going to be selective.

They also rode through a village adjacent to this climb around 15km from home. Again... it's 500m at 7,6%, it doesn't make the race 'hard'. But it does at least give a platform for somebody to spring from.

The Tour of Britain and the Women's Tour have both been very guilty of placing a bunch of hills in the middle of the stage, but none anywhere that is likely to impact the racing. You could actually have significantly easier stages that are more selective by placing fewer hills, but picking ones that have more opportunity to break the field up and placing them in a position in the run-in that incentivises the escape.

Look at the Tour de Yorkshire when that used to run, by way of comparison. Same issues as the Tour of Britain/Women's Tour in terms of how to host the race, but far better racing as a result of much better use of what was available to them.

 

[RedheadDane]

Kooij won stage 1.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Wout said he was gonna do a leadout for Kooij in the first 6 stages and go for GC in the last 2 himself.

Stage #1 Tick

 

[Didinho]

Kooij won stage 1.

Wout 2nd? They’re gonna win 8 stages.

 

[theyoungest]

It's a pity for Wout that there aren't bonus seconds at the finish... Affini-Van Aert-Kooij is a sprint train as strong as anything we've seen in the TDF.

 

[willbick]

Kooij could win the first 7 stages but more likely he'll take the first 3 and then let Bennett and Gaviria win a stage each to keep everyone happy

 

[samhocking]

That explains why they're going through those areas, but not why they don't use what those areas have to offer. It's like we've said on the Women's Tour multiple times, it's like they just draw lines between the areas that are paying without paying any mind to what is in that area. The East Anglian Women's Tour stages riding straight past the only hills in the area before a finish too dangerous for a safe sprint are particularly galling.

Closing roads in UK is a huge issue, local police force support/numbers/increased costs are a huge issue, lack of public support is a huge issue and also the way volunteers can't keep roads closed anymore has also become a huge legal and money pit for hosting races in UK. I'm always amazed any race goes ahead at all at this scale, it's hard enough just trying to get a local amateur road race signed off by all involved.

 

[yaco]

Yet, the crowds are fantastic for British races.