Tour of Britain route and teams announced

[MatParker117]

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/racing/british-racing/tour-britain-2014-route-launched-119567

Starts with a crit in Liverpool and has finishes with a split TT/Crit stage in London. Key Stages look to be Haytor and the summit finish on The Tumble. BMC , Garmin, OPQS, Movistar, Giant, Tinkoff, Cannondale, Belkin & Sky are the World Tour teams. Froome/Roche/Martin for the GC?

 

[RownhamHill]

Super excited by this at first glance - should be a good route and comes very local to me!

 

[Peter70]

Not really

No stages in Scotland. No ride over the A 93 and A 939 or the A 896 and the Bealach na Ba! They're not even trying!

 

[Pricey_sky]

Happy with the route and teams announced. The stage up the Tumble will be very good and i'm glad they include another summit finish in the race. Also good news that one of the stages start in Worcester right by me!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Llandudno stage looks interesting, as does the Brighton one. I'm sure they could beef up the run-in into Bristol a bit (you'll see in due course) and the Haytor stage looks really disappointing, with no proper obstacles in the second half at first glance. Glad to see the London stage back with a TT, keeps the race alive, and another MTF, but of short to medium length to keep it from being an imbalanced route, is a good way of going about the course.

A bit disappointed to see two crits though. I guess as they are quite common race formats in the UK it makes sense, and the fans will get to see plenty of the riders, but it makes it harder to really tour the country with so few stages especially if two of them are staying in the one place, plus with top level teams around the races almost invariably end up in dull processionals ending with a sprint. I'm really not fond of criteriums making stages in professional races, though the circuits may be long enough to afford a bit of interest if there's some road furniture or technical sections.

 

[MatParker117]

Happy with the route and teams announced. The stage up the Tumble will be very good and i'm glad they include another summit finish in the race. Also good news that one of the stages start in Worcester right by me!

Hopefully with the race moved back a week and no clash with the worlds TTT we'll get some of the best fighting it out on that climb.

 

[MatParker117]

Llandudno stage looks interesting, as does the Brighton one. I'm sure they could beef up the run-in into Bristol a bit (you'll see in due course) and the Haytor stage looks really disappointing, with no proper obstacles in the second half at first glance. Glad to see the London stage back with a TT, keeps the race alive, and another MTF, but of short to medium length to keep it from being an imbalanced route, is a good way of going about the course.

A bit disappointed to see two crits though. I guess as they are quite common race formats in the UK it makes sense, and the fans will get to see plenty of the riders, but it makes it harder to really tour the country with so few stages especially if two of them are staying in the one place, plus with top level teams around the races almost invariably end up in dull processionals ending with a sprint. I'm really not fond of criteriums making stages in professional races, though the circuits may be long enough to afford a bit of interest if there's some road furniture or technical sections.

Race will be won or lost on the tumble could go down to the TT though.

 

[Catwhoorg]

No stages in Scotland. No ride over the A 93 and A 939 or the A 896 and the Bealach na Ba! They're not even trying!

Scotland and East coast next year.

Yorkshire for sure has other priorities this year.


Looks a decent route, they could have made more of the Mendips though.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Scotland and East coast next year.

Yorkshire for sure has other priorities this year.


Looks a decent route, they could have made more of the Mendips though.

Agree, They also had to agree to keep transfers between stages down too (I know teams have moaned about this in the past) which is why no Scotland and 2 Crits. As you say Yorkshire is all about the Tour this year plus they have a 3-day race now too.

Having now had a longer study of the route the only let down is the Haytor stage where they could have made it tougher.

 

[Boardslide]

No stages in Scotland. No ride over the A 93 and A 939 or the A 896 and the Bealach na Ba! They're not even trying!

You have to remember that Scotland has the commonwealth games this year & Yorkshire the Tour so I expect that was taken into consideration but expect they'll be included another year

 

[MatParker117]

Best case scenario in terms of participants this could be a very interesting race with Giant on the entry list we could even get Cav vs. Kittel/Degenkolb in the sprint stages.

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Do the organisers know that the Scottish independence referendum doesn't take place until after the TOB has finished?

A harder uphill finish and shorter TT is a definite improvement on last year, but it looks like they've been a bit conservative with the hilly stages (although it's hard to tell from the crappy profiles). I'll be there for the Llandudno stage.

Random early prediction - Navardauskas ftw.

 

[Pricey_sky]

A good interview with race director Mick Bennett, he talks about plans for the future and the changes to the race. Also a brief description of each stage:

http://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/news/9569.php#.UzofLv-PK70

 

[wirral]

Where are they crossing the River Mersey?

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Desperation Hype in Press Releases chapter 42:

" will make perfect preparations for the World Road Race Championships thanks to its distance and arduous nature."
So 3 climbs in 220km is the same as 28 climbs in 253km.

Have confidence in your own product: promote it on its own merits.

 

[argyllflyer]

Where are they crossing the River Mersey?

Going by the overview map, around Warrington.

http://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/files/documents/Stage2_Overview.pdf

 

[wirral]

Going by the overview map, around Warrington.

http://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/files/documents/Stage2_Overview.pdf

Cheers.

I am guessing detailed routes have not been released.

 

[42x16ss]

I haven't seen the route yet, are the organisers using the coastline at all? Would make some nice viewing and a 99.9% chance of echelons.

 

[del1962]

Dissapointing that it is not going anywhere near the North of England

 

[Pricey_sky]

Dissapointing that it is not going anywhere near the North of England

They will next year, part of the deal to upgrade was that transfers would be shortened so they now have to rotate the areas they use. This year South/west and next year north/east and Scotland.

 

[alspacka]

I haven't seen the route yet, are the organisers using the coastline at all? Would make some nice viewing and a 99.9% chance of echelons.

Not much, a little of the south coast near Eastbourne, on the hilly stage 7 to my hometown of Brighton

 

[al_pacino]

Be able to watch out of my bedroom window by the looks of things.

 

[wirral]

Dissapointing that it is not going anywhere near the North of England

Liverpool is in the North of England.

 

[willbick]

i dont think the Tumble finish will be very selective. It flattens off towards the top and will likely be into a stiff headwind so I cant see anyone staying clear in the last km or so

 

[forkboy84]

They will next year, part of the deal to upgrade was that transfers would be shortened so they now have to rotate the areas they use. This year South/west and next year north/east and Scotland.

Assuming Scotland is still part of Britain by the time race is run in 2015 (It probably will be, it's not as if it'll be independence the second after the votes are tallied up)