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Tour of Britain 2009 route announced

Grand Depart from Scunthorpe, followed by eight days of racing around the country

This year's Tour of Britain will start in Yorkshire and finish in London eight days later en route it will visit the North East, followed by a first visit to the Scottish Borders, then the North West, then two stages in South West England leading up to the finale in London. There will also be a series of mass participation events linked to the Tour which will be announced in a few weeks time.

The race starts in on the 12th September with the Grand Depart in Scunthorpe. "On the way from the Grand Depart to the final stage in London, riders will face and experience every kind of challenge that the UK's countryside has to offer, while taking in some breathtaking views of our wonderful country,

"
96 of the world's top cyclists will once again be taking on the challenge of The Tour of Britain in 2009, with a route designed to deliver a worthy overall winner to join the ranks of previous yellow jerseys such as Geoffroy Lequatre, Romain Feillu and Nick Nuyens.
,” said Technical Director of the Tour of Britain Michael Bennett.

The first stage finishes in York and subsequent stages will visit a combination of previously visited venues and regions with the addition of some new ones. The Tour then re-visits the North East once again racing from Darlington to Newcastle/Gateshead on Stage Two, while Stage Three sees The Tour heads to Scotland in the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway. This is the first time The Tour of Britain will be visiting this part of Scotland.



The Tour of Britain then heads south, with Stage Four featuring the North West of England and Blackpool, with Stage Five both starting and finishing in Stoke-on-Trent, via a hard day's racing through the scenic North Staffordshire countryside, including the infamous Gun Hill.



The South West, scene of some of the races biggest crowds in 2008, has two stages in 2009, with Stage Six taking the riders across Exmoor as they pass from Somerset into Devon, on their journey from Frome to Bideford. The penultimate day of the race then sees the peloton retrace its steps, from Hatherleigh in Devon to Yeovil in Somerset, on a gruelling stage that could decide the winner of this year's race.



A spectacular final day of racing will round out the 2009 Tour, as riders tackle the London circuit that opened last year's race which takes in the Houses of Parliament, Victoria Embankments, The Tower of London, and starts and finishes on Whitehall.


 


Daily ITV coverage



For the second year running full coverage of the race will be televised on ITV, with viewers able to enjoy an hour long nightly highlights show of all the action on ITV4, between 7pm - 8pm, with repeats the following day.



New Website



This year's Tour will have a  revamped website that is much clearer for users to navigate, and which will feature live rider tracking during the race. 

The Prostate Cancer Charity Partnership



The Prostate Cancer Charity is the exclusive charity partner of The Tour of Britain. This partnership is a key element of a new initiative, 'Unite ByCycling', which has been set up to raise awareness of prostate cancer, as well as generate funds to enable the Charity to improve the lives of men affected by the disease, and their families.

John Neate, Chief Executive of The Prostate Cancer Charity, said: "This partnership represents a really exciting new chapter in the life of the Charity and a great opportunity for us to raise awareness and funds and gain support on a local and national level. The Charity is excited to be involved with the fast growing sport of cycling and the UK's premier cycle event. We are also working with the Tour of Britain to announce two further mass participation events in the coming weeks. These events are designed to appeal to all levels of competitiveness, endurance and those just wanting fun and to be a part of The Tour of Britain experience."

 

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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4 comments

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DaSy | 15 years ago
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Looks like I'll have to travel this year!

I've been spoilt the last couple of years, the Grand Depart was from my local velodrome in Reading a couple of years ago, so got to mix with all the teams and riders.

Last year it went up my local training hill, Streatley Hill, and was a great place to watch the race go by.

I may take a ride to the smoke and watch the final stage there.

Avatar
Jon Burrage | 15 years ago
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May well be heading down for a look at this one. Why doesnt the ToB website show more detailed sections for each stage...like the route for the frome-bideford stage.

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cactuscat replied to Jon Burrage | 15 years ago
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Jon Burrage wrote:

Why doesnt the ToB website show more detailed sections for each stage...

i doubt they've sorted out the route at that level yet. getting the start and finish points is the big work i'd guess, in between is a lot easier

Avatar
Tony Farrelly | 15 years ago
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Looking forward to seeing the ToB in Somerset, Frome is just down the road from us

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