Tour of Britain

The Tour of Britain (dt. UK Tour ) is a bicycle race through the UK .

In its current form, the stage race was held for the first time in 2004 and has been part of the UCI Europe Tour since 2005 . It is classified in the UCI category 2.1 . The race is organized by the British Cycling Federation . Previous events on the tour had existed since 1945.

The Daily Express Tour of Britain from 1951 to 1955, the Milk Race from 1958 to 1993 and, in parallel, the Kellogg's Tour from 1987 to 1994 are further predecessors of today's race . In 1998 and 1999 there were two prudential tours .

In 2019, the tour will open for the first time with two stages in Scotland.

Winner (since 2004)

• 2004 Mauricio Ardila
• 2005 Nick Nuyens
• 2006 Martin Pedersen
• 2007 Romain Feillu
• 2008 Geoffroy Lequatre
• 2009 Edvald Boasson Hagen
• 2010 Michael Albasini
• 2011 Lars Boom
• 2012 Nathan Haas ⁽¹⁾
• 2013 Bradley Wiggins
• 2014 Dylan van Baarle 
• 2015 Edvald Boasson Hagen
• 2016 Steve Cummings
• 2017 Lars Boom
• 2018 Julian Alaphilippe
• 2019 Mathieu van der Poel

⁽¹⁾ Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (Great Britain) was deprived of the overall victory due to discrepancies in the biological passport.

Individual events

Tour of Britain 2004

The first edition of the new Tour of Britain took place over five days at the end of September. The tour culminated in a 72 kilometer criterion through London . Tens of thousands of spectators saw a long breakaway attempt by local driver Bradley Wiggins . On the last lap he was caught by the field and Enrico Degano from Team Barloworld won the mass sprint . The Colombian Mauricio Ardila took the overall victory.

Tour of Britain 2005

The second edition in 2005 was held in six stages. Start was on August 30th in Glasgow and finish was on September 4th in London .

	begin	target	winner
1st stage	Glasgow	Castle Douglas	Nick Nuyens
2nd stage	Carlisle	Blackpool	Roger Hammond
3rd stage	Leeds	Sheffield	Luca Paolini
4th stage	Buxton	Nottingham	Serguei Ivanov
5th stage	Birmingham	Birmingham	Nick Nuyens
6th stage	London	London	Luca Paolini

Overall winner was Nick Nuyens .

Tour of Britain 2006

→ Main article : Tour of Britain 2006

Forerunner (1945–1999)

First races

The first edition of the Tour of Britain in 1945 was the result of a conflict between the National Cyclists' Union (NCU), which had existed since 1883 . In Great Britain cycling was a sport of the working class and the wealthy “upper classes” against it because they feared that road cycling might disrupt rural hunting societies. Probably under pressure from the police and politics, the association therefore banned road races and organized competitions on cycle tracks and closed circuits.

In 1942 one of the best British drivers at the time, Percy Stallard , nevertheless organized a race from Llangollen to Wolverhampton and was banned from the NCE for this. He and his colleagues then founded a new association, the British League of Racing Cyclists (BLRC). This association organized road races, such as a race from Brighton to Glasgow , which eventually became the Tour of Britain . The first ones were played by amateurs . There were also French at the start who were members of another “rebel association”, the communist Fédération Sportive et Gymnastique du Travail . From 1954 to 1956 the Circuit of Britain was sponsored by Quaker Oats , which is why the events were also called The Oats .

Palmarès 1945–1956

1945 Victory Marathon Robert Batot 1946 Brighton-Glasgow Mike Peers 1947 Brighton-Glasgow George Kessock 1948 Brighton-Glasgow Tom Saunders 1949 Brighton-Glasgow Geoff Clark 1950 Brighton-Glasgow George Lander 1951 Butlin Tour Stan Blair 1951 Brighton-Glasgow Ian Greenfield 1951 Daily Express Tour of Britain Ian Steel

1952 Brighton-Glasgow Bill Bellamy 1952 Daily Express Tour of Britain Ken Russell 1953 Brighton-Newcastle Frank Edwards 1953 Daily Express Tour of Britain Gordon Thomas 1954 “Oats” Amateur Circuit of Britain Viv Bailes 1954 Daily Express Tour of Britain Eugène Tamburlini 1955 "Oats" Amateur Circuit of Britain Des Robinson 1955 Tour of Britain Tony Hewson 1956 "Oats" Amateur Circuit of Britain Dick McNeil

Milk Race (1958-1993)

→ Main article : Milk Race

Kellogg's Tour (1987-1994)

→ Main article : Kellogg's Tour

Prudential Tour

• 1998 Stuart O'Grady
• 1999 Marc Wauters

Web links

• Official website (English)
• Tour of Britain in the database of Radsportseiten.net
• Prudential Tour in the database of Radsportseiten.net
• 1940s Tours. In: tour-racing.co.uk. Retrieved July 27, 2017 (English). 
• 1950s Tours. In: tour-racing.co.uk. Retrieved July 27, 2017 (English). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stephen Mcilkenny: Scotland to host opening stages of the Tour of Britain. In: heraldscotland.com. May 29, 2019, accessed May 30, 2019 . 
2. ↑ radsport-news.com of December 17, 2013: Sky professional Tiernan-Locke under suspicion of doping
3. ↑ ^{a b} Dave Moulton: History of British Cycle Racing: Part I, The Ban on davesbikeblog.blogspot.de
4. ↑ 1945 Brighton-Glasgow 2. In: tour-racing.co.uk. Retrieved July 27, 2017 (English).