Tour of Britain 2012

[Max_Junglie]

Get set

http://www.tourofbritain.com/

This year's is an 8 stage race starting in Ipswich on Sunday 9th September and finishing in Guildford on the 16th. Not one of the top category tours, but this year has some of the biggest teams in cycling taking part, including:

Euskaltel
Garmin
Liquigas
Orica Greenedge
Team Sky
Vacansoleil

Sky look to be pushing the profile of British cycling further in this one with an incredibly strong team scheduled to start, including Wiggo, Cav, Bernard Eisel, Jeremy Hunt, Christian Knees and Thomas Lofkvist.

Sammy Sanchez will be leading the Euskaltel team. Ivan Basso will lead the Liquigas team. Less impressively, Saur Sojasun will feature the TdF lanterne rouge Jimmy Engoulvent.

Other teams haven't declared yet, but hopefully the Aussies will send some of their top men in the Orica team (Goss, Gerrans). Hopefully Peter Sagan will also make the Liquigas team, and Garmin will send Millar, Zabriskie and Hushovd (probably unlikely, but you never know). Track gold medallist Ed Clancy may make an appearance for Rapha Condor.

If the route comes nearby I'd really recommend going down to have a look. A peloton in full flow is an amazing sight, but get to a sprint point or stage finish if you can for the full bore experience.

 

[AW?]

I love Sammy Sanchez he's a lunatic.

I might have to go along to check one of the days out for this. Cool.

 

[Misfit]

Not at all a bad turnout. The big 3 will always reamin the big 3 and then there are the other established races but there's no reason why the ToB can't raise itself into a big enough event to raise itself to the World Tour in the future, imo. It'll take some time of course and will be a Euro Tour for a while yet but British Cycling is already targetting a one day race in London to be added to the UCI WT.

First step is gtting a premiere one day event added and build enough cache for the ToB. We might be several decades behind the rest of the world, certainly Europe, when it comes to road and track cycling being a major sport but the momentum that has been built up over the last 15 yrs or so is staggering.

Just discussing this shows how much momentum has been built. 10 yrs ago this was still dreamland. Hell, 10 yrs ago the ToB was still in limbo.

 

[Marty]

Hushovd's at BMC this season and injury/illness has ruined his season, I'd be surprised if he raced again this year.

Still, great to see so many of the top teams taking part and Sky taking it so seriously, will do a lot for British cycling.

 

[nightgoat]

Other teams haven't declared yet, but hopefully the Aussies will send some of their top men in the Orica team (Goss, Gerrans). Hopefully Peter Sagan will also make the Liquigas team, and Garmin will send Millar, Zabriskie and Hushovd (probably unlikely, but you never know). Track gold medallist Ed Clancy may make an appearance for Rapha Condor.

If the route comes nearby I'd really recommend going down to have a look. A peloton in full flow is an amazing sight, but get to a sprint point or stage finish if you can for the full bore experience.

With Sky including their two biggest British names, I wouldn't be surprised if Millar was in the Garmin Team.

I'm going to try and get along to the final stage, it being the closest to London. Guildford's only an hour by Train from Waterloo. The Champs-Élysées has nothing on Guildford High Street.

 

[Shanks]

Agree NG, I'll be down at Guildford the finale.

Guildford being 15 minutes away from me, I'll be taking my boys to watch!

 

[nightgoat]

This starts tomorrow. ITV4 have live coverage from 1:45. Here's the full start list.

http://www.tourofbritain.com/_ns_news/

 

[nightgoat]

Incidentally, tomorrow's weather for Ipswich and Norwich says 'Scorchio!'

Being a trundle through East Anglia the first stage will probably be as flat as a pancake, so hopefully Cav can get the Tour off to a great start and win the stage.

 

[llamafarmer]

I went to see the mendips stage of this last year, it was great, but the local council decided they didn't want the hassle of it this season - I bet they're kicking themselves now! That stage came up cheddar gorge and did a couple of laps around Wells, so we managed to cycle out there and watch them in 3 different spots. Good turn out then too - Cav, Geraint Thomas, Thor Hushovd to name a few.

I'll probably head to Caerphilly this year for it. It's great that Wiggo's riding as he'll hopefully bring out the big crowds. I've even managed to persuade the girlfriend to come and watch!

 

[llamafarmer]

Nice of Endura to do all the work for Cav today

 

[llamafarmer]

Ouch! Cav down hard. Messy stage!

 

[nightgoat]

Some very narrow roads today, so not surprising there were a few crashes. Looked like a Liquigas rider went flying into the verge at one point earlier. Shame for Cav as that was probably the best chance for him other than the final stage to win in the rainbow jersey in the UK before the Worlds again.

 

[Misfit]

Pissing down today. Proper order. This sunshine can eff off now the Olympics/Paralympics are over.

 

[nightgoat]

Of course it's going to rain, they're riding in the north.

 

[Misfit]

Good finish that. Well done Howard.

 

[nightgoat]

Bad day for Sky today. Cav was always going to struggle on a stage like today, but it was odd that Wiggins went back for him. They could probably have left Eisel and Hunt to drag Cav over the climbs and if Wiggo and Luke Rowe could have stayed in one of the bunches near the front they could possibly still have three riders in GC contention. I wonder if they'll now go all out for Knees or just go for stage wins.

 

[llamafarmer]

Legendary shot from the Caerphilly stage (not mine!)

 

[nightgoat]

Apparently that's Luke Rowe's brother...

 

[llamafarmer]

It was and the photo came from his twitter feed.