It may feel like the 2024 season should be winding down towards its conclusion, but in fact the beginning of autumn is a busy period in the racing calendar.
As well as the culmination of the Vuelta a España, the coming week sees the UK’s premier professional cycling event, the Men’s Tour of Britain.
This year’s route totals 946.5km over six stages: three relatively challenging hilly days and three which should favour the faster riders. There will be many awkward sections during the week, not least because British country roads are narrow & winding, and there is very likely to be some wind along the way, especially from the North Sea on the last day.
Starting from the small Scottish border town of Kelso, and finishing on the Suffolk coast in Felixstowe, the peloton will pass through a fewl regions of the country, including the Scottish Borders, Tees Valley, South Yorkshire, West Northamptonshire, and East Suffolk.
Sports Director Roman Kreuziger gives us his overview of the route:
The 1st 3 stages are quite demanding: not big hills but always up & down. It’s a very technical course. The roads themselves are not easy and we’ll have to wait a bit to see what the wind will be like.
The level is high – 4 World Tour teams and 3 very solid Pro Conti teams. We have to be active from day 1 because the first stage will be key to understanding who wants to control the race and how it will develop.
The opening stage starts and finishes on the cobblestones of Kelso, and looks straightforward on paper, but a short climb with 24 km to go could lead to some early action and spoil the best laid plans of a few teams.
Wednesday’s profile is more challenging, with numerous short, steep tests along the 152.7 km between Darlington and Redcar, and the following day is tough right from the start in Sheffield. The finish in Barnsley is characterised by several ascents on the approach to a 400m uphill drag to the line.
Stages 4 (Derby-ewark-on-Trent, 139.2 km), 5 (Northampton-Northampton, 147.2 km) and 6 (Lowestoft-Felixstowe, 158.7 km) are all predicted to end with a bunch sprint.
Kreuziger takes us through the TBV line-up:
We’ve brought Nicolò [Buratti], Matevž [Govekar] and Zamba [Edoardo Zambanini] to look out for any bigger breaks that might make it to the finish.
They’re all in good shape, especially Zamba, who could be our plan B for the GC
Wout [Poels] and Pello [Bilbao] are the older guys looking at the other team leaders.
Vlad Van Mechelen is a young sprinter who only joined us as a trainee last month, but has already shown at the Deutschland Tour that he can do a job. But for him this is mainly about learning of course. We are confident that Matevž should be the sprinter for stages 4-6. If we see his shape is good and he gets through the first 3 days well, we’d like to give him the opportunity to go for it in the second half of the race.
Bahrain’s leader for the 20th edition of the Tour of Britain is Basque GC rider Pello Bilbao, while Dutchman Wout Poels will be the road captain. They bring a wealth of experience and talent as we make our debut at this race. Poels though, will be on the startlist for the 5th time, and has won a stage in each of his previous four appearances (2010 S4, 2015 S5, 2016 S6, 2018 S6). He is also the only member of our lineup to have raced the Tour of Britain before.
Zambanini’s role will be to follow dangerous moves and bring our leaders into a good position in the first phase of the race. Buratti and Van Mechelen will provide support on the first three stages, and will be the lead-out for Govekar on the sprint stages.
Ahead of day one, Kreuziger concluded,
We’re happy to come to the Tour of Britain because it’s an event where we can bring some seasoned riders to fight for victory, and with them some younger guys, who can ride alongside world tour pros and riders from lower ranked teams, to measure how they are progressing.
The 2024 Tour of Britain sets off from Kelso, Scotland, at 1030 BST/1130 CEST.
