Tour of England - visiting Scotland

curlyrobert

The 2008 tour looks set to be exciting with the inclusion of Miller led Slipstream, Cav flying for High Road and a bundle more UK and Pro licence teams.

I find it unusual that the Tour of Britian only visits 2 of the 3 British countries (N.Ireland is part of UK not Britain in my knowledge before we have a separate debate!)

Wales is not even 200 miles North to south so it would have been ideal following the south west stage on day 3 to start in Cardiff/Swansea, then whiz up through Brecon Beacons, into Elan Valley before moving through Snowdonia to a finish in Dolgellau? This would bring a large crowd for stage 4 as proposed trip through the Malverns would.

At present it just feels like a Tour of England with a quick roll through Scotland, anyone else agree?

Tom Butcher

No not at all. If you look at the population of Scotland and Wales you wouldn't expect it to visit them every year. It hasn't been to the East Midlands for a few years either. I'm sure if some part of Wales stumps up the cash then the tour would go there.

curlyrobert

Didn't the tour tear through the Midlands last year? and in 2006, 2005, 2004, the first year back the tour did do a stage in Newport, so perhaps Wales has had it's quota for the next decade?

Tom Butcher

It's not been to the East Midlands for a few years - last year it was closer to Wales than to me - probably is again this year. It's up to the regions to put up the money - that's why Scotland has had it the last couple of years, that's why London got the TdF.

Richrd2205

& given that in the past three years, Scotland (well, Glasgow) has had the start twice and the finish once, each time with the entirety of the stage being in Scotland, it's hardly "just visiting" these parts. As Tom says, it's about where stumps up the cash & only London has had more prestigious bits of the Tour than Glasgow thus far.

GroupOfOne MkII

Obviously Scotland are just keener to be involved in cycling than Wales, particularly with the Commonwealth Games coming up (and the success of Scottish cyclists).

The other way to look at it is that Rally GB (what was the Rac Rally) is now based in Cardiff and solely takes place in Wales, so that doesn't visit England or Scotland either.

Yup hasn't been to the East Midlands since 2005 when it went from Buxton to Nottingham.

curlyrobert

Ah, I never really considered funding for route choice. I was led to believe it had more to do with the course directors choice.

and fair point about the WRC, I believe that it has been suggested to change the name to Rally Wales? not sure the governing body would be too happy.

For the record, I am not from Wales, and do not live near, (West London) but have done several rides there and just very impressed with the terrain for both road and mtb, best place to ride in the UK having rode south downs, peaks, lakes, ben nevis and cannock chase - but just my opinion.

Would be nice for the tour to visit all three nations. so who do we lobby to get Wales more involved?

GroupOfOne MkII

curlyrobert wrote:

Would be nice for the tour to visit all three nations. so who do we lobby to get Wales more involved?

Welsh Development Agency would be your number one target. Following on from that I'd try lobbying individual counties/regions within Wales who may be interested in having the race.

Kléber

Technically, Wales isn't a nation. It is a principality of England. It is a component part of England, like Hampshire or Norfolk, only on a grander scale.

Just look at the Tour de France. The 3 week race doesn't visit every region, it often misses many regions a year.

eh

All about money and who pays to host the start/finish.

For the record Wales has a decent record for high profile cycling events including over the past years Tour of Britain stages, a Womens world cup, National road champs and the 5 valleys Premier calendar which may or may not be the same races as the GP of Wales.

freddymerckx

yeah parts of france pay big money for the starts/finishes. more for grande departes and even for intermediate sprints i think.

dave_1

I see rock racing are down for Tour of Britain...it'ill be good to see Tyler Hamilton racing this side of the pond

GroupOfOne MkII

Dave_1 wrote:

I see rock racing are down for Tour of Britain...it'ill be good to see Tyler Hamilton racing this side of the pond

Are they? As far as I've seen, at the moment the only four teams confirmed for the ToB are Great Britain, Rapha, Plowman Craven and Pinarello.

takethehighroad

The prime example to look at when you want to see what would happen if a race could visit all areas is the "Tour of America". There grand plan is to visit each state every 5 years or something, yet they're finding it difficult to find sponsorship...

dave_1

GroupOfOne MkII wrote:

Dave_1 wrote:

I see rock racing are down for Tour of Britain...it'ill be good to see Tyler Hamilton racing this side of the pond

Are they? As far as I've seen, at the moment the only four teams confirmed for the ToB are Great Britain, Rapha, Plowman Craven and Pinarello.

rock and republic's racing website lists Tour of Britain 08 as on their race schedule

MartinL

eh wrote:

All about money and who pays to host the start/finish.

For the record Wales has a decent record for high profile cycling events including over the past years Tour of Britain stages, a Womens world cup, National road champs and the 5 valleys Premier calendar which may or may not be the same races as the GP of Wales.

The 5 valleys race got canned due to the rising cost of policing the event, and is not the same event as the GP of Wales. The GP of Wales is based around Abergavenny and is part of their festival of cycling that has events all week including TT's, crits and a sportive. It was also used as a replacement for last years National Champs won by Dave Millar.

The last time the ToB visited Wales, it was based around the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport and managed to pull in a sizeable crowd. Prior to this, the resort had hosted the National Champs twice. The resort was starting to host all types of cycling events, including the Bike Wales sportive and a number of Triathalons.

It all went pear shaped, when Nicole Cooke failed to ride the round of the Womens World cup and the BBC withdrew their planned coverage. No TV coverage, no return for the hosting resort which was trying to boost it's image in the run up to the 2010 Ryder Cup.