Dates for Tour of Britain 2009

Dates for next year's Tour of Britain have been announced. The 2009 edition of the race will take place over eight days, running from Saturday 12th September to Saturday 19th September. The race will once again be a UCI category 2.1 race which means the Great Britain team can take part (national teams are not allowed to compete in 2.0 races) and that the field can have a maximum of 50% ProTour teams. Race organisers say the Tour of Britain will continue with its policy of mixing the very best ProTour, Professional Continental and Continental teams with the top domestic teams. Despite it being barely a month since the 2008 edition finished ToB organisers report that they have already received expressions of interest about taking part in the 2009 race from over 20 teams. The 2008 race was widely acknowledged to have been the most successful edition of the Tour so far. Large numbers tuned in for The Tour of Britain highlights each evening on ITV4. With an average reach of 310,000 viewers and a peak reach of 376,000 for the highlights of Stage Five to Dalby Forest in Yorkshire, the programme compared strongly with the Tour de France highlights on the same channel and met with an extremely positive reaction from both ITV and Tour of Britain organisers. The 2009 Tour of Britain will finish in central London, on the same circuit used for the opening stage of this year’s Tour with full details of the route being announced at the national launch in the Spring.