Tour of British for Sky...

pedro118118

Provisionally: -

Wiggins
Downing
Cummings
Thomas
Hayman
Henderson

Pokerface

Tour of Britain?

sampurnell

awesome.
:P

Pross

So they've left out the defending champion and Kennaugh? Are they doing the Vuelta? I can see Downing winning, his sort of race.

RichN95.

Pross wrote:

So they've left out the defending champion and Kennaugh? Are they doing the Vuelta? I can see Downing winning, his sort of race.

I reckon Kennaugh will do the Vuelta and EBH will do those ranking races in Canada (which look the sprinter type of course)

takethehighroad

RichN95 wrote:

Pross wrote:

So they've left out the defending champion and Kennaugh? Are they doing the Vuelta? I can see Downing winning, his sort of race.

I reckon Kennaugh will do the Vuelta and EBH will do those ranking races in Canada (which look the sprinter type of course)

I forget about these Canadian races, when are they again?

RichN95.

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

I forget about these Canadian races, when are they again?

Don't know the exact dates, but it's the same week as the Tour of Britain.

iainf72

Can I be the first to get the "how can it be the Tour of Britain if it doesn't come to <where I live>"?

andyp

No, as it's coming to London.

takethehighroad

How can it be a Tour of Britain if the peloton never waited for a British rider to win it?

rockmount

Tour of England ??..

The worst thing about attending the TDF, being mistaken for English !

jamlala

Its coming to Suffolk/Essex too, at least its moving around nicely around the country!

deal

iainf72 wrote:

Can I be the first to get the "how can it be the Tour of Britain if it doesn't come to <where I live>"?

Its coming to to where i live this year! Swansea and they shall be climbing the semi-famous cobbled Constitution Hill. Sadly im in France for two weeks so will miss it

PBo

deal wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Can I be the first to get the "how can it be the Tour of Britain if it doesn't come to <where I live>"?

Its coming to to where i live this year! Swansea and they shall be climbing the semi-famous cobbled Constitution Hill. Sadly im in France for two weeks so will miss it

What gradient is that? It looks lovely and slippery!!!!

orbeaorca

PBo wrote:

deal wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Can I be the first to get the "how can it be the Tour of Britain if it doesn't come to <where I live>"?

Its coming to to where i live this year! Swansea and they shall be climbing the semi-famous cobbled Constitution Hill. Sadly im in France for two weeks so will miss it

What gradient is that? It looks lovely and slippery!!!!

A height gain of 59m over 293m

takethehighroad

orbeaorca wrote:

A height gain of 59m over 293m

About 20% then?

calvjones

Are the posts there so that the Jacks can nick their Lighweight wheels when they slow down to go around them?

inkyfingers

If they got rid of the bollards and put the finish line there instead that would be a hell of a spectacle...

No doubt they'll go up it then do a 20km flat loop so that all the sprinters can get back on...would love to be proved wrong though!

milton50

From the official website:

"The first 100 kilometres from Newtown are quite flat, but then we have Black Mountain, which isn’t especially steep, but is a spectacular European style climb with hairpin bends.

From the summit there’s just 40km to go to the finish in Swansea, at the top of Constitution Hill, a real sting in the tail."

inkyfingers

That's great, the TOB needs more stages like that. As impressive as EBHs dominance last year was it didn't make for an exciting race.

Pross

They went up it about 10 years ago and did 3 or 4 circuits. It had a few of them off and walking. The biggest problem is that it goes from flat to steep with virtually no transition so the lead cars get a real smack as their bumpers hit the road! It seems to have been traffic calmed since then. I think it is also about 30% at its steepest or so it was claimed whne they put it on the route that time.

Gazzetta67

Thats Nice of Sky sending a strong squad especially when their leader gets paid £2m a year to win sweet F.A - Dont believe the Skhype

gsk82

they could do with a stage over some of the lake land hills or the like. unfortunately that would meant he winner of that stage would probably win the whole thing which would annoy the sprinters teams

Rutlandblue

Gazzetta67 wrote:

Thats Nice of Sky sending a strong squad especially when their leader gets paid £2m a year to win sweet F.A - Dont believe the Skhype

What has that got to do with anything?

The finish in Swansea looks fantastic, a brave move but one which i applaud.
The organisers have an impossible job to please everyone. Overall i think as a minor tour it is an excellent one.

morstar

The route is also largely dictated by the way the race is funded.

Geography isn't the issue as there has already been criticism of the horrendous transfer from Glasto to Kings Lynn.

I'm sure a Scottish stage could be included if somebody chose to pitch for one.

Everybody knows it's far from perfect but what should the organisers do, just not bother?

On the Sky point, they're damned if they do, damned if they don't. Dominate and they'll be criticised, not perform and they'll be criticised.

G was awesome last year, first time I really sat up and took notice beyond him just being a British rider. I can't help but feel they will maybe try and do something with BW though. No doubt that won't be good enough for some though.

stagehopper

morstar wrote:

I'm sure a Scottish stage could be included if somebody chose to pitch for one.

Everybody knows it's far from perfect but what should the organisers do, just not bother?

They're had Scottish stages in many of the recent Tours of Britain which is what makes the criticism a tad misguided. On the other hand this is the first edition to have a Welsh stage in a number of years.

Britain's a big country and there's just a week of stages, you can't cover it all. It has to be on a rotation basis.

We'll have posters saying how can it be the Tour de France if it doesn't go to Normandy soon.

takethehighroad

stagehopper wrote:

Britain's a big country and there's just a week of stages, you can't cover it all. It has to be on a rotation basis.

We'll have posters saying how can it be the Tour de France if it doesn't go to Normandy soon.

The Potteries and the lancashire coast seem to get favourable treatment and are included every year, but on the whole I think the rotation is fair. I know last time it came to Sheffield there were major road problems so they asked not to be considered for a while

I've also spoke to French people who do make this grumble (well, the fact that the 09 race didn't go north of Alsace) but I think it's just standard whingeing really, we're all susceptible to it at one time or another

rolf_f

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

stagehopper wrote:

Britain's a big country and there's just a week of stages, you can't cover it all. It has to be on a rotation basis.

We'll have posters saying how can it be the Tour de France if it doesn't go to Normandy soon.

The Potteries and the lancashire coast seem to get favourable treatment and are included every year, but on the whole I think the rotation is fair. I know last time it came to Sheffield there were major road problems so they asked not to be considered for a while

I've also spoke to French people who do make this grumble (well, the fact that the 09 race didn't go north of Alsace) but I think it's just standard whingeing really, we're all susceptible to it at one time or another

It does seem a bit 'up the West Coast, East Anglia and London' - you'd think they could manage something in the middle, North or South!

jimmythecuckoo

Finally coming to the fens, let's hope the "blow" is in full effect and we can see some proper racing.

cougie

i saw the pru tour go up constitution hill when I worked on it - the smell of burning clutches from team cars will stick in my mind ! We drove up it in a heavily loaded 4x4 and you almost felt the car would tip back !

incog24

If you want a stage near you, go and petition your council and local police force. Its not easy to do in lots of parts of the country, some don't allow rolling road closures or charge prohibitive amount. So as usual, try not to moan at people who don't have the easiest of jobs...