One of the most highly anticipated professional cycling events in the United Kingdom is all set to kick off in the first week of September. The Tour of Britain is gearing up for its 2018 edition, which will also be the 13th edition since the reincarnation of the event with several changes in 2004. The cycling Tour of Britain route was unveiled back in February 2018 with the addition of a time trial stage. It now means that the Tour of Britain 2018 has nine stages compared to 8 in recent years. Even those eight Tour of Britain stages were a bump up from the five stages the event used to have in 2004.
The Surprising Route
Tour of Britain 2018 race director Mick Bennett unveiled the cycling Tour of Britain route in the hope of keeping up with the recent momentum of popularity gathered by the event. Several changes to the Tour of Britain stages over the last few years have made it more competitive and brought it to the levels of Tour de France or Vuelta a Espana. Attracting the best riders in the world to the United Kingdom is one of the sole objectives of this event.
George Square in Glasgow will form the location for the start of the 2018 edition. The nine Tour of Britain stages will see riders cover just over 1300 km from September 4 to September 11. This will certainly take its toll on the riders, but there is a consensus that the 2018 edition will be slightly easier than the 2015 edition. Furthermore, there is an opportunity for riders to make use of every Tour of Britain stage to prepare well for the upcoming World Championships in Qatar. This reason alone is expected to increase general interest amongst riders in the competition.
Tour of Britain 2018 – Challenging Parts
The upcoming competition brings a lot of aspects like challenging races and sprint finishes. These are aspects which will have a lot to do at the World Championships. Glasgow last played host to the start of the event back in 2008. It provides a sprint finish to the Castle Douglas since there is no prominent climbs along the way. Stage two goes through various sections of the enchanting Lake District, which may not offer anything out of the blue for experienced riders. The Lake District has been a standard fare of the Tour of Britain in recent years. Even though much of the route will be familiar, riders will have to be prepared for the climb from Ambleside towards the end of the stage.
Stage three at the Congleton marks the beginning of the tough stages. As expected, the stage four takes its toll since it is the longest. As the competition enters into the final stages, riders go through Wales and Bath before a time trial event near London. The final stage will be a replica of the final stage in 2015, which received a lot of rave reviews. Each stage is tough and this will be on the minds of punters when it comes to Tour of Britain bet online.
The growing popularity of the event has also resulted in a number of punters looking for good Tour of Britain bet online opportunities. These opportunities are presented because of the Tour of Britain 2018 odds, which are once again leaning towards the favourites like Alberto Contador. Even though it makes a lot of sense to make an early judgement, Tour of Britain 2018 odds at a later stage will provide a more accurate picture about the favourites for the title.
