Tour of Britain 2008 - countdown

With just five weeks until the UK’s biggest professional bike race begins in London on Sunday 7th September, we look at what’s new for 2008.

Over 1150km of tough and exciting racing will decide who joins the list of previous winners of The Tour of Britain, that’s roughly the equivalent of riding from London to Barcelona!

96 of some of the world’s best professional cyclists spread across 16 teams will contest the eight stages of the 2008 race, which take The Tour of Britain from Big Ben in London to the shadow of the Liver Building in Liverpool.

Between the two landmarks they’ll contest 23 E.ON King of the Mountains climbs, 24 Hot Spot Sprints, plus the three special Transport for London Sprints on Stage One of the race, which will offer a £5,000 prize.

288 seconds of time bonuses will be on offer to riders at stage finishes and at Hot Spot Sprints – that adds up to over 4 and a half minutes, which could be important bearing in mind how close the finale of the 2007 race was!

An extra, eighth day, allows The Tour to take in the North East for the first time on Stage Six of the race from Darlington to NewcastleGateshead, where the race will finish on the banks of the Tyne in front of the famous Baltic Mill. The race also visits the county of Devon for the first time on Stage Three, as the race progresses from Chard to Burnham-on-Sea.

In addition to welcoming whole new regions into the expanded race, The Tour of Britain visits ten new venues in 2008.

Since the races’ rebirth in 2004, The Tour of Britain has now visited over 25 different locations across the UK for stage starts and finishes.

While the race has been to both the start (London) and finish (Liverpool) in the past, The Tour of Britain has never before visited them in such a way, with exciting city centre circuits book ending the race and bringing cycling to the people.

This year’s Tour of Britain will for the first time very have an evening highlights programme on ITV4, allowing fans to keep up-to-date with each days action. The programme will air nightly, enjoying the same 19.00 – 20.00 slot that the Tour de France highlights are screened in.

There are new teams and sponsors making appearances too. It will be the first chance for British fans to see the Team Columbia and Team Garmin jerseys in action on these shores. With four time Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish and former Tour de France yellow jersey David Millar provisionally leading each team respectively, they are sure to be a big draw.

A number of teams make their Tour of Britain debuts, coming from as far afield as South Africa (MTN Energade) and America (Rock Racing), while closer to home Staffordshire based Pinarello RT make their bow in the race.

The Tour also welcomes Ordnance Survey and One Water aboard as partners of the race. Ordnance Survey have become official mapping partners of The Tour of Britain in a three year deal, while One Water are the official suppliers of water to the 2008 race.

Website - www.tourofbritain.co.uk

Stages
7 September Stage 1 London Circuit
8 September Stage 2 Milton Keynes to Newbury
9 September Stage 3 Chard to Burnham-on-Sea
10 September Stage 4 Worcester to Stoke-on-Trent
11 September Stage 5 Hull to Dalby Forest
12 September Stage 6 Darlington to NewcastleGateshead
13 September Stage 7 Glasgow Green to Dumfries and Galloway
14 September Stage 8 Blackpool to Liverpool

Teams
Agritubel
An Post – M.Donelly – Grant Thornton – Sean Kelly Cycling Team
Barloworld
Great Britain
LPR Brakes - Ballan
MTN Energade
Palmeiras Resort – Tavira
Pinarello RT – Candi TV
Plowman Craven Racing Team
Rock Racing
Rapha – Condor – Recycling.co.uk
South Australia.com – AIS
Team Columbia
Team CSC – Saxo Bank
Team Garmin – Chipotle presented by H30
Topsport Vlaanderen