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Im amazed at the Wrexham route, there was potential there for a day in the hills, some great roads, climbs etc.
Seeing how successful the WC road race was yesterday and how exciting the shorter TDF stages have been, how about making the TOB stages about 100km long with a town centre crit style finish?
how about making the TOB stages about 100km long with a town centre crit style finish?
The Tour of California worked that way for several years. A to B ride for 100 - 150km then anything from 3-8 laps of a town centre circuit to finish.
You need to watch the circuit layout carefully - if there are significant gaps in the peloton coming into it, it makes the circuit very difficult to control as the back of the peloton can arrive at the circuit entrance as the front of the peloton is about to go past it again. It's even more difficult when you're trying to work out how many team cars can fit into the circuit and issues about the back of the convoy being caught by the front of the race!
Not dissimilar to the confusion that can arise in the Roubaix velodrome as riders coming in to start their 1.5 lap are potentially arriving into groups on their last 0.5 lap.
Stage 7 Chucksbury to Glos... any tips on where to watch?
I'm not a roadie but it is a Saturday and I live pretty much in the centre of the stage. From watching TdF on the box, seems like climbs are good vfm.
Cowbells, cheering, beer preferred. Chateaux optional.
Either the climb out of Dursley (which should be a busy spot given it's a Saturday), or the uncategorised climb at Pitchcombe.
Sprints are over in seconds, so a decent climb is value for money.
Or the Sudeley climb out of Whinchcombe if you want something further north. You could probably do one of the above too by taking the direct route south
@martinhutch A trick was missed with omitting the Bawdsey Ferry, John would have enjoyed that challenge and a good bit of shouting at people to wait while he lifts the bikes on! There's plenty of town centres to watch them hurtle by in though and up Needham High Street is a change usually it's the other way round so another bunch of KOM times will be out of reach for the local fast boys!
Very disappointing stage 2 Wrexham route.
looking at that really glad I didn’t book the day off work to ride out and watch. What an incredibly dull stage.
Then they wonder why the Tour of Britain isn’t that popular with the general public
https://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/2021-champion-wout-van-aert-set-for-tour-of-britain-return/
Wout alert!
I think the Wrexham route was their back-up plan. Originally, it went into Wales - Llangollen and over Horseshoe pass, which would be much better. Then it got changed a few weeks ago .
I think the Wrexham route was their back-up plan. Originally, it went into Wales – Llangollen and over Horseshoe pass, which would be much better. Then it got changed a few weeks ago .
There was a similar issue a couple of years ago with the Women's Tour - can't remember exactly what but the planned stage got changed to a crit race at Cyclopark in Gravesend. Followed by a delightful drive around the M25 at rush hour once the stage finished to get to South Wales for the final stage the next day.
Team lists are begining to emerge, still some gaps though
https://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/race/riders/
It's looking very good; Bora and Jumbo-Visma are strong.
Team lists are begining to emerge, still some gaps though
I see Tom Pidcock is leading Ineos - presumably they're counting on his CX and MTBing skills to get around the UK [s]potholes[/s] roads... 😉
Looks like the Rake is getting resurfaced in anticipation of Sunday. A good job as its presently like the surface of the moon
Josh Tarling as well to drag Pidcock along the flat bits.
It's coming up Caerphilly mountain, so looking forward to that. 10 years ago !!
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Full Ineos team confirmed
https://twitter.com/INEOSGrenadiers/status/1697172703839461398?t=NO4lcARJ0RVtvHLtRbd5KQ&s=19
I've picked a Tour of Britain 'velogames' team, it contains quite a few Ineos riders.
Jumbo and Bora both have strong teams with big names.
Stage one just started live on ITV4, just had first crash of one rider.
Just seen it's going up 'The Rake' at Ramsbottom in a little while, keep an eye out for Binners 😉
Be interesting to see how the Pros skip up it!
(BTW it's on ITV4)
I've watched the hill climb champs on the rake.
The fastest guys are on singlespeed. Crackers
Stage one just started live on ITV4, just had first crash of one rider.
Did you see me standing on the corner where they turned left off Carr Brow?
It all looked a bit pedestrian TBH, more like a club social ride out.
You don't really get how steep The Rake is on TV.
Saw my parents outside their house!
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What the F is going on with images now?!
Looks great on TV. Made up with the glorious weather forecast for this week.
OMG slight thread diversion but F-M, these ITV4 adverts are either dying dogs or deaf cataracts with the odd gammon cruise ship holiday advert thrown in for a bit of happiness. I can't wait for the peloton to get to Manchester so I can get back to a streaming channel.
"RNLI Wills" too. It does make you wonder what they think the demographic of ToB viewers is.
Very exciting sprint finish.
This morning found a group of us STWers watching the race pass through Marple Ridge. Then we went into 'that Manchester' and got a good spot to view the sprint finish, 10 metres from the line. Toddled round to the buses and got right up to some of the riders passing to get back to their turbo trainers.
You don’t really get how steep The Rake is on TV.
Saw my parents outside their house!
Nice to see it on such a nice day. 👍
I am sure I saw binners watching at the steep corner,or maybe it was Vin Diesel.
😉 😃
This morning found a group of us STWers watching the race pass through Marple Ridge.
Ooh I was up there.
Ooh I was up there
We got on TV and everything!
I was on the orange e-cargo bike if you saw that parked up on the hill...?
Went into Manchester for the finish, stopped off at the Rapha cafe for a bit to watch some of it on TV then headed to Deansgate for the finish.
Up near the old 'Romper pub' is a great spot to view the race, as the riders wind their way down the descent. I was standing next to crazy_legs (he's very tall) in a green dress.
I'd upload a photo of some old people watching a race, but STW image upload seems to be borked
Rammy was fun. Lots of people and great atmosphere. Seemed like a bigger event that previous years.
They made the rake - and lots of other unclassified hills along the route - look a lot easier than I do.
Race vehicles made harder work of it than the bikes. A motorbike ground to a halt in front of our spot (at the start of the steep section) and the passenger had to jump off for him to get going again. He just left him behind.
I am sure I saw binners watching at the steep corner,or maybe it was Vin Diesel.
😉 😃
Binners is in Dorset or Devon or somewhere on holiday, but he did say his mate was using their house as a base to watch the raced. Do you think Binners is mates with Vin Diesel?
Fast day today!
Fernando Gaviria has had a crash already...
Just sitting through some adverts for funeral plans at the moment....
🙂
I've ridden all these roads - Beeston and Peckforton Castles, the Cheshire lanes. Normally don't have crowds applauding, it's more SUV drivers hooting...
Is the post count on this thread borked for everyone else? It's only showing as 4 or 5 posts but there's obviously about 125!
there are 87 posts (88 including this) but I think tech are doing soe playing about with the live system as the "go to last post" link just takes you to post 1, page 1 (I've reported it and when I refreshed the index page the post count on the thread had vanished too)
Fernando Gaviria has had a crash already
I get that mitts don't look cool to some, but why wouldn’t you when your livelihood depends on it?
Horrifying crash in the run-in there as the DSM rider got squeezed into the traffic cones.
Not sure about this "countback" idea for GC placings rather than overall time