The Tour of Britain, the most important UK men’s cycling race, is to go ahead this year. It will start in the Scottish Borders and end in Felixstowe, touching some stunning areas of the country and celebrating God’s own county in two consecutive stages.
Tour of Britain 2024 to go ahead
The 2024 Tour of Britain has been in doubt for months, but thanks to British Cycling, it has been saved and will be taking sport aficionados on the streets of the UK once again. The race will start in Scotland on 3 September and end in East Anglia on 8 September after six stages, hundreds of kilometres, and a lot of hill climbs.
One of the newest features of the race is the number of stages itself: two fewer than last year. This is due to the organisers will to make the Tour of Britain the first pro cycling race to achieve gender equality. The first step towards this goal is to have the same number of stages and comparable route lengths in both the men’s and the women’s races a pledge they want to fulfil in the near future.
In fact, except for a cancellation in 2023, the women’s race has grown in popularity in the last years. It has become one of the major events in the Union Cycliste Internationale calendar and attracting top class riders such as current world champion Lotte Kopecky, British legend Elizabeth Deignan and Italian star Elisa Longo Borghini.
The route for this year’s men’s race can be roughly split into two halves, the first one including the vast majority of climbs and the second one possibly more favourable for the sprinters: an unusual and yet intriguing layout that might lead to some surprises. Once again, Yorkshire will have a prominent role, hosting two stage arrivals and encompassing more than 250km of the overall 943.5km.
Up and down the hills
The first three days will take the riders through some mountainous areas of the country and could possibly indicate a limited number of clear favourites to win. The opening stage will be in the Scottish Borders with both the starting and the finishing lines located in the picturesque town of Kelso. The riders will follow a double loop through Coldstream, Melrose, Denholm and Jedburgh, covering a total length of 181.9km and including various climbs, the hardest of which is at Dingleton (2.5km with an average gradient of 6.2% and peaks at above 8%).
On 4 September, the riders will move from Darlington into Yorkshire, covering a distance of 152km, and traversing parts of Teesdale and a vast portion of the North York Moors. The athletes will face a number of short yet tough climbs like the ones at Ugglebarnby (1.5km with an average gradient of 8%) and at Raw Pasture Bank near Whitby (2.6km with an average gradient of 7.5% and peaks at 10%) before dropping down on the coast for two laps of the final circuit. After a double ascent at Saltburn Bank (350 metres, with an average gradient of 14.4%) the peloton will head towards the finishing line in Redcar.
The third day of racing will begin in Sheffield and end in Barnsley after 166.1km. The riders will follow a tortuous loop passing through Chapeltown, Conisbrough, Denaby, and Royston, and on some challenging Peak District climbs amounting to over 2,700 metres of ascent.
Among those are the climbs at Loxley (1.6km with an average gradient of 7% and peaks at 8.5%), Oughtibridge (1.7km with an average gradient of 9.5% and peaks at 12.2%) and Haund Hill near Penistone, (1.5km with a quite regular gradient of 6.9%). After finishing the latter one, the athletes will only have four more kilometres (mostly made up of a quite technical descent) to reach the checkered flag, located on County Way at the end of an 800-metre-long ascent with a gradient of around 7%.
A matter of sprint
The second half of the race will explore the quiet countryside of the East Midlands and East Anglia. The fourth stage will see the athletes ride from Derby to Newark-on-Trent, one of the riders’ favourite locations in recent years thanks to the always warm-hearted and colourful fans of Nottinghamshire. After departing from outside Derby Arena, the riders will pass through Elvaston, Borrowash and Heanor before crossing into Nottinghamshire at Eastwood and touching Hucknall, Ravenshead and Southwell. This sprinter friendly route will end just a stone’s throw from Newark Castle after 138.5km.
West Northamptonshire will be the backdrop for the penultimate day of racing; the starting and finishing lines will be both in the county town of Northampton, namely in the University of Northampton Waterside Campus and in the town centre respectively. The 147km long route will pass through Daventry and include a hilly loop traversing Abthorpe, Wappenham, Helmdon and Hellidon, featuring the last categorised climbs at Newnham Hill (1.5km with an average gradient of 6.1%) and at Bullshill (1.3km with an average gradient of 5.2% and peaks at 7.1%). The riders will then approach Northampton city centre via a section through the very historical Naseby, Brixworth and Ecton.
The 2024 Tour of Britain will come to a fitting close with a 158km-long scenic stage starting in Lowestoft, the most easterly town and point in Britain, and finish on Sea Road in Felixstowe, a town that saw a decisive victory by Wout Van Aert last year. The route will of course be flat and will take the riders through ancient towns and villages such as Beccles, Framlingham, Saxmundham, Aldeburgh, Wickham Market and Martlesham.
Ready? Go!
Stages 1, 4 and 5 will all include an intermediate sprint, while the last stage will have three of them so if the general table is still tight on the final day – a quite likely scenario – then the final stage might still be decisive. More than 100 athletes from all continents will ride the streets of the UK competing for the leaders’ jerseys, not only the overall winner but also the very prestigious King of the Mountain Jersey and the Points Jersey.
In fact, there will be 18 teams from 12 different nations lined up in Kelso for the grand depart, among them some of the most decorated professional cycling teams of the last decades including Ineos Granadiers, Barhain Victorious, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, LIDL-Trek, Israel-Premier Tech Team and Soudal Quick-Step.
Millions of people will be following the riders’ deeds, both in person or through media channels around the world, an exceptional chance to display the beauty of Britain and to support some small, but very friendly and hardworking communities around the country.
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