Except that this year it's only England and Wales!?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Sport
"Tour of Britain 2014 route revealed"
(15 posts)-
Posted 10 years ago #
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Anticipating the referendum results?
Posted 10 years ago # -
"
Organisers said that although Scotland had been omitted this year it was "set to make a return" in 2015."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-26833221
Posted 10 years ago # -
Maybe next year they'll go north of Liverpool... they can't go everywhere. The Tour de France doesn't exactly go to every part of France, does it?
Posted 10 years ago # -
Has the weather been pretty bad last couple of years on the two northern sections? My memory is real howlers?
Posted 10 years ago # -
@gembo I can confirm that I got a proper soaking watching the first two stages last year. It was bad luck as the Saturday (the day before the start) was glorious in the Borders.
It has become traditional for the route announcement to be immediately followed by offended parties having a good moan about the ToB not visting a particular part of the country. But, like fimm says, you can't cover the entire island in 8 days. There seems to be an ambition to grow it in length, so that may change over time, but one step at a time.
Plus, they seem to have made a real effort to restrict the travel distance between the finish of one stage and the start of the next, which may well be an effort to attract more high end pros to the race as it means a lot less time sitting in the bus between the finish and the hotel. That's a good thing, but restricts the geographical area they can cover.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@ps, agree on all points but this year looks bit more like Tour of the ancient kingdom of Mercia?
They should make it longer and make the pros cycle the bits where they are sitting in the bus. When weather fine they never look too knackered? However when windy and raining they don't look so happy, seems to be a great leveller the wind and the rain and the hills.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Careful, gembo, you'll be offending the sons of Gwynedd and Powys. The route crosses Offa's Dyke...
Posted 10 years ago # -
And Wat's Dyke
Posted 10 years ago # -
It would be good to see pros riding over the Lecht or the Bealach na Bà, but realistically I suppose they're too far from population centres to make any sense as race routes.
Wales and Devon seem like a good way of getting hills in without going too far from London, the Midlands and Liverpool/Manchester/Sheffield.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@IWRATS It's not unthinkable. It would probably take a combination of a two week race (to allow several stages before it and time to get back to London) and Visit Scotland/HIE/Cairngorm resort taking the decision to invest in cycling to get a stage up there.
If the race gets big enough, there may even be room for a queen stage in the Highlands followed by a TT in Edinburgh then flights to London for the final day (similar to the TdF approach), but that wouldn't be cheap.
Posted 10 years ago # -
London, NW England and Wales.
What was the meeting like?
"Hey, guys, should we go somewhere different this year?
"Nah, let's go to the same places we go to every year".Posted 10 years ago # -
Perhaps there should be a Tour of Ecosse?
Posted 10 years ago # -
@gibbo: "let's go to the same places we go to every year"
I've watched it at Penpont, Drumlanrig, Wanlockhead and Peebles. The stage finish at Drumlanrig was exciting. The stage start in Peebles was interesting. The other two days weren't really worth the drive.
Posted 10 years ago # -
The Tour of Britain now had 2.HC status, as the article says, and that gives it the same rating as rides such as the Tour of California and Criterium International, a significant increase in status. And that is seen as a stepping stone to making it a bigger - and longer - event in the future.
That said, it's a big shame Scotland is off the route this year. Perhaps they can leave England off it next time? Only fair!
I'll just have to console myself with two days of the Giro in Belfast, and hopefully the rider presentations too.
Posted 10 years ago #
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