Part Two - Planning The Route
Timothy John
“Phil and Tony haven’t been the only ones grappling with the herculean organisational challenge that is the modern Tour of Britain, however. Route Director Andy Hawes, working with Safety Manager Steve Baxter and Sergeant Duncan Street of the Central Escort Group, has planned - and driven - every inch of its 1309.9km. Here’s Andy.”
Andy Hawes
“The first run through is a sense check: can we do this? Nine times out of ten, you pick your KOMs on that first run through because, purely by the nature of a KOM, it presents itself in front of you. Sometimes, if we’re lucky, we get the sprint locations as well. Sprint locations are becoming harder and harder to find every year, what with local authorities putting in traffic-
calming measures. Speed humps, traffic islands, splitters, you name it. So sprints don’t always come on the first run through.
“On the second run through, we’re doing this with Duncan. He’s sense-checking everything we’ve done, and then we’re picking up everything else along the route. ‘Where does that junction go? What happens if we shut that one? Will motorists just nip round and use a different one? Do we need to shut that one before that one?’ We’re getting a really good feel for things and putting some flesh on the bones for the risk assessments and the ETAs.
“And then the final one is when we’re really looking at the sporting aspect, because, yes, we might have found the KOM right at the beginning on stage one, but where actually are we
going to finish it? And where actually are we going to start it?
“I have a can of marking up spray. I mark up where we’re going to start the KOM, mark where we’re going to finish it, and take photographs. Those pictures then go into a document for my Route Tech Signage Crew. Come the day, they’ll look at it, say: ‘Ok, this is where he’s marked it,’ and then go and put the signage out.”
A Rider's Perspective
“The sporting points are, naturally, of greatest concern to the riders, and Harry Tanfield is well-qualified to comment, having ridden and finished the Tour of Britain twice, firstly in 2017 for Canyon-dhb and again in 2019 for the now-defunct Katusha-Alpecin squad.
“This year, Harry will miss the race. Team Qhubeka-NextHash need him instead at the Benelux Tour: a seven-stage race run in Holland and Belgium and a fixture of the WorldTour calendar, still known to most fans - and Harry - as the BinckBank Tour.
“For an 80kg power house, this year’s Tour of Britain would be a poor fit, but Harry says its demanding parcours reflects its prestige: one that this year has attracted world champion
Julian Alaphilippe, his Deceuninck-Quick-Step team-mate Mark Cavendish, and Jumbo-Visma’s Wout Van Aert.“
Harry Tanfield
“I was always the first reserve for The Tour of Britain. With the course, every day is super hard: 3000m or 3500m of climbing. It’s a better fit for my race programme for me not to do the Tour of Britain, but to do the BinckBank Tour instead. My characteristics as a rider are better-suited to the BinckBank Tour, which means I can do more to help my team. It’s unfortunate that they overlap, which means I can’t do my home race.
“The level is higher in the BinckBank Tour, and I can assist more there than I can in the Tour of Britain. It’s more important for the team to get a victory or a result in the BinckBank Tour than in the Tour of Britain because it’s a WorldTour race.
“The Tour of Britain offers a real contrast in course with the Tour of Britain. Because they run at the same time, people have to choose between the two. I think the style of riders looking towards the Tour of Britain are those looking to get in a big racing load [for the world championships]. The course is a lot harder [than the BinckBank Tour].
“The course suits puncheurs, Classics-style riders, rather than all-out sprinters, even though all-out sprinters don’t exist any more: everyone’s just very good at everything [laughs]. I wouldn’t be surprised if the race comes down to a group of 30 guys and Mark Cavendish is still there because he’s going well at the moment. It would be good to see. Hopefully, Cav gets some stage wins.
“Wout Van Aert could probably win almost every day there. I think it says a lot about the guys who are going there. When you look at the list of sprinters who are going to the BinckBank Tour and the list of sprinters who are going to the Tour of Britain, there’s Cav and Wout Van Aert. I don’t really know many other sprinters who are going there because it isn’t a
particularly sprinter-friendly race.
“I’ve looked at the profiles. There are maybe three sprints of some sort, possibly four. I think there will be three kind of decent bunch sprints, I would imagine, so I think there are still quite a lot of opportunities for sprinters in the race, but it’s going to be a very high-level race if riders like [world champion] Julian Alaphilippe and Wout Van Aert are there, trying to take on the general classification. It’s going to get ripped up quite a lot.”
A Tough Course
Timothy John
"Larry Hickmott shares Harry’s analysis. His coverage of every edition of the Tour of Britain since it relaunched in 2004 has made him an eyewitness to the success of home-grown talents and visiting superstars. He says the Tour of Britain has grown steadily harder, more competitive and more exciting and believes this year’s edition will be no exception."
Larry Hickmott
“I think the race is definitely a lot more competitive, a lot harder than it was in the beginning. It has the same format as any pro race, which is lots of early breakaways and then being controlled for much of the race. But then there have been days, certainly in the year when Alex Dowsett was wearing yellow, when a lot of the stages became uncontrolled because of the parcours that SweetSpot and Andy Hawes introduced into the race. The race became a lot more exciting and far less controlled.
“Lately, it’s become more and more competitive. I did enjoy the days when Tom Boonen was wearing the rainbow stripes in the race. In those days, the race was not treated as a major race as it is now. I think it says a lot when you get guys like Wout Van Aert coming here to prepare for the world championships as have other guys in previous years. I think it says a lot about the standing of the race now.
“I think with eight stages and the parcours this year, the race is hugely demanding. I’ve spoken with a couple of riders who are riding it and a DS as well, and there are thousands and thousands of metres of climbing every stage, which, for guys like Van Aert is no big deal; even for guys like Mark Cavendish, it’s probably not as tough as riding some of the Grand Tour stages. But it’s certainly a tough race where, by the end of eight days, the riders will know they’ve been in a bike race.”