Tour of Britain 2016 Preview

Cycling events in Europe have largely been more popular in France, Spain, and Italy thanks to the presence of races like the Tour de France. They form part of the Grand Tour which requires riders to go through some extremely tough stages before getting the ultimate glory. Professional cycling events in Britain have not attained the same popularity, but several changes to the Tour of Britain are starting to have its effect. After all the Tour of Britain is the most popular professional cycling race in the United Kingdom.

The most recent edition of the Tour of Britain took place in 2015. This was the 12th edition of the event, which underwent major changes in 2004 to make it competitive on the international front. The first edition of the race took place in 1945 – much later than the Tour de France. There was a brief hiatus after the 1999 edition. Following several restructures, the event resumed in 2004. Even though it started out as a five-stage event, recent editions of the cycling Tour of Britain have been held as an eight-stage event. Now, this number will be increased to nine for the Tour of Britain 2016.

Since coming into the UCI Europe Tour, the Tour of Britain route has become much more complex with large predominance for early stages. Twenty teams took part in the 2015 edition that started on September 6. The entire event comprised of only three hilly stages and one medium mountain stage with the rest being flat stages. The event was dominated by three teams – Team Sky, Movistar Team, and Etixx–Quick-Step. Even though they managed to grab individual stages, Cannondale–Garmin managed to win the overall team classification by finishing 5′ 35″ ahead of Team Sky.

Elia Viviani of Italy came out on top when stage victories were taken into account. He managed to grab three stage wins out of eight. Edvald Boasson Hagen of Norway, though, was crowned as the champion as per the general classifications. He ended up walking away with the yellow jersey followed by Wout Poels and Owain Doull. As a British event, the race received a boost with three Brits managing to win the points, general, and sprints classification.

The Tour of Britain 2016 is expected to be much more difficult. The race starts in Glasgow and will end in London as ever. This time around, the stages cover a whopping 1308.5 km. Even though there are more hill stages, several riders are of the opinion that the 2016 route will not be much easier than in the previous edition. Only the final two stages of the event are flat runs with all the rest being hilly stages.

The Tour of Britain dates for the upcoming edition were announced as early as in February. The Tour is also seen as a great opportunity for riders to prepare for the upcoming World Championships in Doha, Qatar, which starts only three weeks after the Tour of Britain ends.