Tour of Britain route unveiled

[MatParker117]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... ggins.html

Stage One: Sunday, September 6
Beaumaris, Anglesey to Wrexham (177-kilometres)
The race starts on an island for the first time with a first Welsh Grand Depart which goes through all six North Wales regions. The route includes the climb of Pen-y-Pass but is likely to finish in a sprint.
Stage Two: Monday, September 7
Clitheroe to Colne (162km)
The first Lancashire stage since 2010 will be enjoyable for spectators – it will be feasible for one roadside fan to watch the peloton go by in around four different locations on the day – but challenging for the riders, with the Nick O’Pendle climb a highlight.
Stage Three: Tuesday, September 8
Cockermouth to Floors Castle, Kelso (216km)
Skirting the Lake District and the Solway Firth, the peloton will ride through Dumfries and Galloway and finish at the home of the Duke of Roxburghe, the largest inhabited castle in the UK. The sprinters are expected to be vying for victory.
Stage Four: Wednesday, September 9
Edinburgh to Blyth (218km)
The modern tour, reborn in 2004, will visit Edinburgh for the first time with a start at Holyrood Palace. The route will travel south along the coast into Northumberland, where winds could make the finale interesting and create costly time splits.
Stage Five: Thursday, September 10
Prudhoe to Hartside Fell (171km)
Hadrian's Wall is followed for much of the stage before the brutal concluding climb of Hartside Fell. At 1,904 feet (575 metres), the 8km climb, which averages five per cent with sections at over 10 per cent, is almost 100-metres higher than the 2014 summit finish on the Tumble in South Wales.
Stage Six: Friday, September 11
Stoke-on-Trent to Nottingham (189km)
Tour race director Mick Bennett believes the Peak District stage is the race's hardest and “completely leg sapping”. The stage finishes on the Recreation Ground in Nottingham, a venue with cycling history.
Stage Seven: Saturday, September 12
Fakenham to Ipswich (225km)
There is no respite. Wind could wreak havoc on proceedings on the penultimate day, with whoever is in possession of the race lead needing to be on high alert for the longest stage of the race.
Stage Eight: Saturday, September 13
London (93km as 15 laps of a 6.2km route)
The London circuit has been tinkered with due to the Cycle Superhighway development, but the twisty, refreshed route, starting and finishing on Regent Street, should be far from a sprint procession.

Cross winds, hills, Peak District, Summit Finish this looks like a fun race.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Looks a decent route again. Stage 5 and 6 will be good and the climb of Hartside is a long drag up, although not really too steep does have a section of 2km @ 8% I believe.
Hartside Cross:
http://www.climbbybike.com/profile.asp?Climbprofile=Hartside-Cross&MountainID=7385

 

[Beacon Hill]

Stage 7 starts in my home town

Hopefully The success of Kwiatkowski, Wiggins and Mullen at the world Championships and Brandle breaking the hour record will encourage a decent start-list.

 

[TMP402]

Lack of ITT is rather disturbing given general British tendency for that and track pursuiting.

Also one British winner since 2004 is pathetic, compared to, for instance, the Tour Down Under.

 

[ferryman]

Why take the start to Edinburgh for a stroll down South before the racing starts. Not overly familiar with the terrain but a west to east start from Carlisle taking in some lumps and then down (or up then down) the coast to Blyth seems a better sounding stage to me...that said I'll probably pop along to the start in Edinburgh..

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Peak District stage looks pretty disappointing actually, not many sizable hills close enough to Nottingham. With small size teams hopefully can still be one for a break with riders burnt off by the climbs early in the stage, but otherwise could be a bit of a disappointment. The Lancashire stage may well be more decisive even though the Peak District stage will be tougher overall.

Final weekend is utter crap. What was wrong with the split stage? That was a much more sensible way to finish off the race.

At the end of the day, with six man teams this can still be an interesting race, but it does not seem as good a route on first glance as the last couple of editions, and there's still much more that Britain has to offer. That said, with stages designed with the wind in mind and some up-and-down-all-day type stages there is at least a hint that they're doing what they SHOULD do with the race, which is make it a Classics man's stage race par excellence, an ideal tune-up for the worlds.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Re:

Why take the start to Edinburgh for a stroll down South before the racing starts. Not overly familiar with the terrain but a west to east start from Carlisle taking in some lumps and then down (or up then down) the coast to Blyth seems a better sounding stage to me...that said I'll probably pop along to the start in Edinburgh..

Their are one or two hills between Edinburgh and the England Scotland border, but it looks as if they are hugging the coast. This will probably lead to a day on the A1 down to Blyth. Your idea would make more sense if they want a race like last year.

Hartside fell will hopefully add something to the racing.

 

[B_Ugli]

I don't know why but all the UK major races seem to be avoiding Kent.

The Tour de France did last year, the Tour of Britain has on consecutive years and the London Cycle Classic sticks to Surrey.

There are some smashing short steep hills along the North Downs in West Kent which would make for a very good classics style route if somebody could kick it off. Doesn't even need to have a Central London Finale.

One region of the UK that has classic written all over it as anyone riding around this area can testify.

 

[Jeriko]

I'm happy to see they'll be in my neck of the woods again this year, for Stage 2. It's been a few years since I got the chance to attend. I'll actually be riding through Forest of Bowland this weekend, weather permitting. I'm sure in time I'll be able to find something about the route to grumble about, but for now I'm just pumped that I'll get to see the pros show me how much I suck on my own training route

 

[postmanhat]

Re:

Peak District stage looks pretty disappointing actually, not many sizable hills close enough to Nottingham. With small size teams hopefully can still be one for a break with riders burnt off by the climbs early in the stage, but otherwise could be a bit of a disappointment. The Lancashire stage may well be more decisive even though the Peak District stage will be tougher overall.

They do seem to have missed out some of the more infamous climbs. And it looks like there's about 45k to the finish from the last real test (Cromford HIll). Someone has already put up an approximate route on Strava!

http://www.strava.com/routes/1587053

I'm going to be optimistic and say it could be a cracker. Especially as I live close by Just getting back on the bike after two months of illness. Will be trying to do as much of the route as possible before September

 

[TMP402]

I don't know why but all the UK major races seem to be avoiding Kent.

The Tour de France did last year, the Tour of Britain has on consecutive years and the London Cycle Classic sticks to Surrey.

There are some smashing short steep hills along the North Downs in West Kent which would make for a very good classics style route if somebody could kick it off. Doesn't even need to have a Central London Finale.

One region of the UK that has classic written all over it as anyone riding around this area can testify.

Halfway down this page I designed a London-Brighton one-day race that goes through Kent (though admittedly doesn't take anything like sufficient advantage of the features you mention): viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15517&start=3220

 

[rick james]

Re:

Why take the start to Edinburgh for a stroll down South before the racing starts. Not overly familiar with the terrain but a west to east start from Carlisle taking in some lumps and then down (or up then down) the coast to Blyth seems a better sounding stage to me...that said I'll probably pop along to the start in Edinburgh..

They are meant to be going over the redstone rigg with the edinburgh stage, gutted its a Wednesday as I doubt I can get the day off work to go and watch it.

 

[B_Ugli]

I don't know why but all the UK major races seem to be avoiding Kent.

The Tour de France did last year, the Tour of Britain has on consecutive years and the London Cycle Classic sticks to Surrey.

There are some smashing short steep hills along the North Downs in West Kent which would make for a very good classics style route if somebody could kick it off. Doesn't even need to have a Central London Finale.

One region of the UK that has classic written all over it as anyone riding around this area can testify.

Halfway down this page I designed a London-Brighton one-day race that goes through Kent (though admittedly doesn't take anything like sufficient advantage of the features you mention): viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15517&start=3220

There is a really good section between say Reigate in the West and Sevenoaks in the East where there a loads of very short steep hills around the North Downs based around the A25. Narrow lanes admittedly but enough B roads in between to make for some wicked Flanders style racing. You could have a flat first 100k with the hills in the back end.

Perhaps I should design a route and get a petition going?

 

[King Boonen]

That North Wales stage is an absolute waste of some fantastic roads in the region.

Check out the full route of the Rise Above Sportive to see what I mean:

http://www.riseabovesportive.com/#routes

 

[JRanton]

Re: Re:

Peak District stage looks pretty disappointing actually, not many sizable hills close enough to Nottingham. With small size teams hopefully can still be one for a break with riders burnt off by the climbs early in the stage, but otherwise could be a bit of a disappointment. The Lancashire stage may well be more decisive even though the Peak District stage will be tougher overall.

They do seem to have missed out some of the more infamous climbs. And it looks like there's about 45k to the finish from the last real test (Cromford HIll). Someone has already put up an approximate route on Strava!

http://www.strava.com/routes/1587053

I'm going to be optimistic and say it could be a cracker. Especially as I live close by Just getting back on the bike after two months of illness. Will be trying to do as much of the route as possible before September

With six man teams that stage should still be very difficult to control. I like that it comes the day after the Summit finish because riders will have nothing to lose/nothing to wait for and will be looking to take back time.

The final weekend does look a bit disappointing. We'll need a strong wind to save us from a bit of a bore fest on stage 7. I'm also disappointed there's no short TT on the final stage.

 

[luckyboy]

Re:

That North Wales stage is an absolute waste of some fantastic roads in the region.

Check out the full route of the Rise Above Sportive to see what I mean:

http://www.riseabovesportive.com/#routes

Not much they can do about the flat run-in to Wrexham though.

Horseshoe pass would've been nice to see.

 

[King Boonen]

Re: Re:

That North Wales stage is an absolute waste of some fantastic roads in the region.

Check out the full route of the Rise Above Sportive to see what I mean:

http://www.riseabovesportive.com/#routes

Not much they can do about the flat run-in to Wrexham though.

Horseshoe pass would've been nice to see.

They could've sent them up Hope mountain...

 

[Tank Engine]

I'm happy to see they'll be in my neck of the woods again this year, for Stage 2. It's been a few years since I got the chance to attend. I'll actually be riding through Forest of Bowland this weekend, weather permitting. I'm sure in time I'll be able to find something about the route to grumble about, but for now I'm just pumped that I'll get to see the pros show me how much I suck on my own training route

A beautiful part of the world. I remember cycling to the Trough of Bowland in olden days of the Kellog's tour when I lived in East Lancashire. I guess they'll have an uphill finish on the drag up throug the centre of Colne. I guess if they're going all the way from Clitheroe to Colne , they're either doing a big loop through the Forest or Bowland, otherwise they'd be going up and down the Nick o'Pendle all day. Anyway, definitely a selective stage with about 10km (??) after a tough final climb.

 

[luckyboy]

or Bwlch Pen Barras!

 

[King Boonen]

Re:

or Bwlch Pen Barras!

That's the old Moel Famau road isn't it? Heading towards Loggerheads? That's also in the Rise Above Sportive. They could have designed a brilliant stage, by using Worlds End, Horseshoe, Bwlch Pen Barras then Hope mountain. Guaranteed excitement!

 

[luckyboy]

Approximately worked out the profiles on mapmyride (the stage lengths are a bit out but they're generally correct profiles)

If stage seven was in Brighton again then it would be a great race overall. Final weekend really needs some hills or the TT back like JRanton said.

 

[del1962]

Hartside will be about 8k in length rising just over 400m and should not be into a headwind, could create some decent gaps.

 

[Ishiguro]

Are they climbing to Hartside from Melmerby or Renwick? There's not much in it but the latter has steeper sections, the former is much steadier.

 

[del1962]

Looking at the map on the link http://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/stages/#.VQwaRo5Tv_8

I would say almost certainly Melmerby

 

[Biggut]

I'd love to see them just have the Fred Whitton route as a stage one year.