Tour of Britain

Tour of Britain

Race details
Date	September
Region	Great Britain
Local name(s)	The Tour
Discipline	Road
Competition	UCI Europe Tour
Type	Stage race
History
First edition	1945 (1945)
First winner	Robert Batot (FRA)
Most recent	Steve Cummings (GBR)

The Tour of Britain, known as the Ovo Energy Tour of Britain for sponsorship purposes,^[1] is a multi-stage cycling race, conducted on British roads, in which participants race across Great Britain to complete the race in the fastest time.

The event dates back to the first British stage races held just after the Second World War, since then various different events have been described as the Tour of Britain, including the Milk Race, the Kellogg's Tour of Britain and the PruTour. The current version of the Tour of Britain began in 2004 and is part of the UCI Europe Tour.

Tour of Britain (1945–1999)

Origins

The Tour of Britain has its origins in a dispute between cyclists during the Second World War. The British administrative body, the National Cyclists' Union (NCU), had feared since the 19th century that massed racing on the roads would endanger all racing, including early-morning time trials and, originally, the very place of cyclists on the road.^[2]

A race organised from Llangollen to Wolverhampton on 7 June 1942, in defiance of the NCU, led to its organisers and riders being banned. They formed a new body, the British League of Racing Cyclists (BLRC), which wanted not only massed racing but a British version of the Tour de France.^[3]

The first multi-day stage race in Britain was the Southern Grand Prix in Kent in August 1944.^[4] It was won by Les Plume of Manchester. The first stage was won by Percy Stallard, the organiser of the Llangollen-Wolverhampton race in 1942.

The experience encouraged the BLRC to run a bigger race, the Victory Cycling Marathon, to celebrate the end of the war in 1945. It ran from Brighton to Glasgow in five stages and was won by Robert Batot of France, with Frenchmen taking six of the top 10 places, the mountains competition and best team.

Chas Messenger, a BLRC official and historian, said: "No one had ever put on a stage race in this country, other than the Southern Grand Prix, and even fewer people had even seen one. So raw were they that Jimmy Kain (the organiser) even wrote to the Auto-Cycle Union – the body for motorcycle racing – and the flags used by them were taken as a guide to what was needed.^[4] Kain recalled the precarious budget: "£44 entry fees and £130 of my own money and £16 when I went round with the hat after the Bradford stage."^[5]

The writer Roger St Pierre said:

"It was reported that 20,000 watched the start but I've seen a picture which would indicate it was probably three or four times that number. What outsiders didn't see though was just what a ramshackle affair it all was, with riders finishing stages often miles longer than billed then having to find a bed for the night – with the poorer riders ending up spending the night huddled in barns, haylofts or even under the hedgerows."^[6]

The BLRC was not recognised by the world governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale and so it recruited its French riders from another rebel organisation, the communist Fédération Sportive et Gymnastique du Travail, using French café-owners in Soho, London, as their link.

Sponsors and politics

Gordon Thomas receiving the 1953 Tour of Britain cup

The Victory Cycling Marathon was run on what little money the BLRC could raise. Riders stayed in cheap boarding houses and officials used their own cars. In 1947, the News of the World gave £500 to the race, by then called Brighton-Glasgow. Within a year it pulled out again, concerned by the internal arguments that had bedevilled the BLRC from the start. The 1950 race was sponsored by Sporting Record, another newspaper, followed by the Daily Express in 1951.

The cycling official John Dennis said in 2002:

"The most effective sponsor of the Tour of Britain (the Daily Express) was lost as a result of the constant bickering between rival officials and organisations. I was the press officer to the Express publicity director, Albert Asher, and saw it all happen. He was upset by the petty disagreements and decided to support the new Formula 1 motor-racing instead."^[7]

Sponsorship was taken up by the makers of Quaker Oats in 1954, and then in 1958 by the Milk Marketing Board.

The Milk Race

The Milk Marketing Board (MMB) was a sales monopoly for dairy farmers in England and Wales. A semi-professional cyclist from Derby, Dave Orford, asked the MMB to pay for "Drink more milk" to be embroidered on the jersey of every semi-professional, or independent, rider in the country. The MMB could then advertise that races had been won because of the properties of milk and the winner would receive a £10 bonus as a result.

Orford met the MMB's publicity officer, Reg Pugh, at the board's headquarters in Thames Ditton, west of London. Orford said: "At the end of the discussion he stated that the MMB would prefer to sponsor a major international marathon. So the Milk Race, the Tour of Britain, was born, starting in 1958 and lasting for 35 years, the longest cycle sponsorship in the UK ever."^[8]

The first two races were open to semi-professionals but from 1960 until 1984 it was open only to amateurs. From 1985 until 1993 it was open to both amateurs and professionals. After 1993 the Milk Race ended as the MMB was wound up because of European monopoly laws.

A tie-in video game, Milk Race, was released in 1987.

The title Milk Race was revived in May 2013 as an annual one-day criterium in Nottingham, with elite men's and women's races. The event is organised by Tony Doyle as Race Director and sponsored by the Dairy Council and the Milk Marketing Forum.^[9][10]

Kellogg's Tour and PruTour

The caravane before the race passed near Halifax

The professional Kellogg's Tour of Britain ran for eight editions from 1987 to 1994. This tour, particularly in its early years, was characterised by very long hilly stages, a typical example being the Newcastle upon Tyne to Manchester stage via the Yorkshire Dales in the 1987 event. The Prudential plc-sponsored PruTour (1998–1999) ran twice. Concerns about safety during the races contributed to both events' demise through the withdrawal of sponsorship; in the case of the Kellogg's Tour this followed a member of the public driving head-on into the peloton in the Lake District,^[11] and in the case of the PruTour a police motorcyclist being killed in a collision with a motorist near Worcester.^[12]

Winners

Tour of Britain (from 2004)

After a five-year hiatus, the Tour of Britain returned in 2004. It began as a five-stage race before increasing to an eight-stage race in 2008. Like the preceding PruTour, it is a professional men's race, attracting UCI World Tour teams, although it has also attracted semi-professional teams and the amateur Great Britain national team.

From 2014, the race has been rated 2.HC by the UCI and forms part of the UCI Europe Tour.^[14]

Stage 3 of the 2005 race passing through Honley, near Huddersfield

Winners

		Rider	Team
2004	COL !	Ardila, MauricioMauricio Ardila (COL)	Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf
2005	BEL !	Nuyens, NickNick Nuyens (BEL)	Quick-Step–Innergetic
2006	DEN !	Pedersen, MartinMartin Pedersen (DEN)	Team CSC
2007	FRA !	Feillu, RomainRomain Feillu (FRA)	Agritubel
2008	FRA !	Lequatre, GeoffroyGeoffroy Lequatre (FRA)	Agritubel
2009	NOR !	Boasson Hagen, EdvaldEdvald Boasson Hagen (NOR)	Team Columbia–HTC
2010	SUI !	Albasini, MichaelMichael Albasini (SUI)	Team HTC–Columbia
2011	NED !	Boom, LarsLars Boom (NED)	Rabobank
2012	AUS !	Haas, NathanNathan Haas (AUS)	Garmin–Sharp
2013	GBR !	Wiggins, BradleyBradley Wiggins (GBR)	Team Sky
2014	NED !	van Baarle, DylanDylan van Baarle (NED)	Garmin–Sharp
2015	NOR !	Boasson Hagen, EdvaldEdvald Boasson Hagen (NOR)	MTN–Qhubeka
2016	GBR !	Cummings, SteveSteve Cummings (GBR)	Team Dimension Data

History

The 2004 Tour of Britain was the first edition of the latest version of the Tour of Britain. It took place over five days in early September 2004, organised by the Tour of Britain/ SweetSpot in collaboration with the BCF (British Cycling Federation), and was the first Tour of Britain to be held since 1999. The Founder Director and the Event Director of the latest version was Tony Doyle MBE and the Eve^[15] Sponsored by the Regional Development Agencies, it attracted teams such as T-Mobile and U.S. Postal Service. It was designated a 2.3 category race on the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) calendar.

The tour climaxed with a 45 miles (72 km) criterium in London, where an estimated 100,000 spectators saw a long break by Bradley Wiggins last until the penultimate lap, before Enrico Degano of Team Barloworld took the sprint on the line. The Colombian Mauricio Ardila, of Chocolade Jacques, won the General Classification.^[16]

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.

The 2006 Tour of Britain took place from 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) the sprints classification.

The 2007 Tour of Britain was extended to seven days, with the extra day being used to run a stage in Somerset for the first time.Instead of finishing in London, the 2007 race started in London and finished in Glasgow, which used the event to boost its bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games. French rider Romain Feillu won overall, Mark Cavendish won the points competition and Ben Swift won the mountains competition.

The tour increased by yet another day for 2008, with eight stages scheduled, from 7 to 14 September. The race began in London and finished in Liverpool.^[17]

The sixth edition, the 2009 Tour of Britain, was also raced over eight days, 12–19 September. The race started in Scunthorpe and finished in London. The Prostate Cancer Charity became the official charity partner of the Tour.^[18]

The 2010 edition of the Tour of Britain was held from 11 to 18 September and was won by Michael Albasini.

The 2011 Tour of Britain was held from 11 to 18 September. Stage Two was cancelled due to bad weather.^[19] The general classification was won by Lars Boom.^[20]

The 2012 Tour of Britain was held from 9 to 16 September.^[21] Jonathan Tiernan-Locke originally won the event, the first British rider to do so since its relaunch. In 2014, following investigation for biological passport irregularities, Tiernan-Locke was banned for two years and stripped of his 2012 title.^[22] The race was retrospectively awarded to Australia's Nathan Haas, riding for the Garmin-Sharp team.^[23] Mark Cavendish, in his last race as World Champion, won three stages including the final stage in an uphill sprint up Guildford's cobbled high street. Tour de France 2012 winner, Bradley Wiggins was forced to pull out of the Tour after stage 5, as a result of a stomach bug.

The tenth edition, the 2013 Tour of Britain, took place from 15 to 22 September,^[24] with 8 stages. Sir Bradley Wiggins won.^[25]

The eleventh edition, the 2014 Tour of Britain, consisted of eight stages between 7 and 14 September. For the first time, it was categorised as a UCI 2.HC race. It began in Liverpool, and finished in London, with two stages in Wales, three in the west of England, and two in the south-east. The race was won by Dylan van Baarle.^[26]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tour of Britain.

• Official website
• Tour of Britain palmares at Cycling Archives