2011 Tour of Britain to start in Scotland

The 2011 Tour of Britain will begin in Scotland on Sunday, September 11, finishing eight days later in London on Sunday, September 18, and will once again be categorised at the 2.1 level by the UCI.

Full details of the 2011 route and the locations of individual stages will be announced at the National launch in the spring but it will have a lot to live up to. The 2010 version was widely acclaimed as the best ever edition of the UK’s biggest professional cycle race, with more than one million spectators watching at the roadside across the eight day event, and highlights on ITV4 reaching an average of 401,000 viewers per night.

“I thought the racing this year was superb,” said Mick Bennett, Race Director. “Credit for that must go to the teams and riders who rose to the challenge of a tough course.

“All the feedback from riders and teams has been very positive and extremely complimentary, which indicates that The Tour of Britain continues to grow, as it has each year since 2004, when we brought this amazing event back onto the UK sporting calendar after an absence of five years.

“In Michael Albasini I think we have a very worthy champion, who displayed a lot of grit and determination to uphold the honour of the Yellow Jersey, even when unwell in the middle of the week. I look forward to welcoming Michael and his HTC – Columbia team back to the 2011 Tour to defend their title.

“The race also presented us with several riders to keep an eye on in the future, for example fourth placed finisher Richie Porte, who was at the forefront of the action all week, and Stage Four winner Wout Poels.

“In 2006 a young rider by the name of Andy Schleck won the King of the Mountains title at The Tour of Britain, and now he is one of the world’s leading riders and should win the Tour de France in the coming years, and I believe both Richie and Wout could follow in his footsteps.”

Riders were also full of praise for the event, with Porte proclaiming via Twitter that, “The Tour of Britain was an awesome race, most enjoyable race so far this season”, while King of the Mountains winner Johnny Hoogerland described The Tour as “a beautiful race.”