Tour of Britain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tour of Britain is the name given to a cycle race, conducted over several stages, in which participants race from place to place across parts of Great Britain. The race features teams from Scotland and Wales, as well as an overall Great Britain team, but in recent years no English team has been entered. The latest version, a professional stage race, was first run in 2004, but the history of the event dates back to 1951.
The Tour of Britain is part of the UCI Europe Tour.
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[edit] History
Marking the involvement of different sponsors, it has also variously been known as:
- the Daily Express Tour of Britain (1951-1955)
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- Scot Ian Steel won the 1951 edition, in which Jimmy Savile (later to become a famous DJ and television personality) also raced. The 1955 edition was organised by the British League of Racing Cyclists.
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- At its peak, this was a two-week amateur event similar in status to the Peace Race, contested by international teams. From about 1983, the event was also opened to professional teams. The Milk Marketing Board also sponsored the Scottish Milk Race, a smaller tour in Scotland.
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- Winners included: Robert Millar (1989), Phil Anderson (1991, 1993), Max Sciandri (1992) and, in its final year, Maurizio Fondriest.
- the Prudential plc-sponsored PruTour (1998-1999)
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- Stuart O'Grady (Crédit Agricole) won the 1998 edition; Marc Wauters (Rabobank) won in 1999.
[edit] The modern tour
[edit] 2004 Tour of Britain
The first edition of the latest version of the Tour of Britain took place over five days in early September 2004, organised by SweetSpot in collaboration with British Cycling. Sponsored by the organisers of London's 2012 Olympics bid, it was well-promoted and attracted a number of well-known teams such as T-Mobile (Germany) and U.S. Postal Service (USA). This was partly due to it being a 2.3 category race on the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) calendar.
The 2004 route climaxed with a 45 mile (72 km) criterium in London, where tens of thousands of spectators saw a long break by Londoner Bradley Wiggins last until the penultimate lap, with Enrico Degano of Team Barloworld taking the sprint on the line. The Colombian Mauricio Ardila, of Chocolade Jacques, won the Tour overall.
[edit] Stages
| Date | Start | Finish | Distance | Winner | Team | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | Sept 1 | Manchester | Manchester | 207 km | Stefano Zanini  Italy |
QSD | 5h 01'23" |
| Stage 2 | Sept 2 | Leeds | Sheffield | 172 km | Mauricio Ardila  Colombia |
CHO | 4h 26'26" |
| Stage 3 | Sept 3 | Bakewell | Nottingham | 192 km | Tom Boonen  Belgium |
QSD | 4h 30'55" |
| Stage 4 | Sept 4 | Newport | Newport | 160 km | Mauricio Ardila Colombia |
CHO | 3h 32'37" |
| Stage 5 | Sept 5 | London | London | 72 km | Enrico Degano Italy |
TBL | 1h 27'30" |
[edit] Final General Classification
| Name | Nationality | Team | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mauricio Ardila | Colombia |
CHO | 18h 58'36" |
| 2 | Julian Dean |  New Zealand |
C.A | + 00'12" |
| 3 | Nick Nuyens | Belgium |
QSD | + 00'17" |
[edit] 2005 Tour of Britain
The 2005 race was run as a UCI 2.1 category in six stages starting in Glasgow on 30 August and finishing in London on 4 September:
[edit] Stages
| Date | Start | Finish | Distance | Winner | Team | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | Aug 30 | Glasgow | Castle Douglas | 185 km | Nick Nuyens Belgium |
QSI | 4h 24'32" |
| Stage 2 | Aug 31 | Carlisle | Blackpool | 160 km | Roger Hammond  United Kingdom |
GBR | 3h 58'48" |
| Stage 3 | Sept 1 | Leeds | Sheffield | 160 km | Luca Paolini Italy |
QSI | 4h 27'24" |
| Stage 4 | Sept 2 | Buxton | Nottingham | 195 km | Serguei Ivanov  Russia |
TMO | 4h 24'17" |
| Stage 5 | Sept 3 | Birmingham | Birmingham | 4 km (ITT) | Nick Nuyens Belgium |
QSI | 4'54.06" |
| Stage 6 | Sept 4 | London | London | 60 km | Luca Paolini Italy |
QSI | 1h 30'54" |
[edit] Final General Classification
| Name | Nationality | Team | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nick Nuyens | Belgium |
QSI | 19h 04'32" |
| 2 | Michael Blaudzun |  Denmark |
CSC | + 00'08" |
| 3 | Javier Cherro Molina |  Spain |
ECV | + 00'22" |
[edit] 2006 Tour of Britain
The Tour of Britain 2006 took place from the 29 August to 3 September as a UCI category 2.1 event. Martin Pedersen and Andy Schleck of Team CSC won the overall and King of the Mountains classification, respectively. Mark Cavendish (T-Mobile Team) won the points classification and Johan Van Summeren (Davitamon-Lotto) captured the sprints classification.
[edit] Stages
| Date | Start | Finish | Distance | Winner | Team | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | Aug 29 | Glasgow | Castle Douglas | 162.6 km | Martin Pedersen Denmark |
CSC | 4h 03'38" |
| Stage 2 | Aug 30 | Blackpool | Liverpool | 163 km | Roger Hammond United Kingdom |
GBR | 3h 54'15" |
| Stage 3 | Aug 31 | Bradford | Sheffield | 180 km | Filippo Pozzato Italy |
QSI | 4h 28'18" |
| Stage 4 | Sept 1 | Wolverhampton | Birmingham | 130.3 km | Frederik Willems Belgium |
JAC | 2h 54'12" |
| Stage 5 | Sept 2 | Rochester | Canterbury | 152.6 km | Francesco Chicchi Italy |
QSI | 4h 24'42" |
| Stage 6 | Sept 3 | Greenwich | The Mall | 82 km | Tom Boonen Belgium |
QSI | 2h 00'41" |
[edit] Final General Classification
| Name | Nationality | Team | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Pedersen | Denmark |
CSC | 21h 51'24" |
| 2 | Luis Pasamontes | Spain |
UNI | + 00'51" |
| 3 | Filippo Pozzato | Italy |
QSI | + 02'11" |
