Strongest field ever for Tour of Britain

As more than a million spectators gear up for the Tour of Britain 2009 which starts this weekend, organisers of the event have said the field is the strongest in its history. Some 102 riders from 19 different countries, including several of Britain’s Olympic champions such as three-time gold medallist Bradley Wiggins, will be competing for stage wins and daily honours such as the yellow jersey.

Technical director of the race, Mike Bennett, said: “This year’s Tour of Britain will be fielding the best and strongest set of teams ever to take part in the Tour of Britain. By having such high profile teams, spectators to this year’s Tour of Britain will be guaranteed to see the highest calibre of cycle racing ever to take place on British soil.”

The race starts in Scunthorpe tomorrow and eight stages will take the race from North Lincolnshire to a spectacular finish in Whitehall, London on Saturday, September 19, with the South West being awarded two stages of the race for the first time ever, which will take in both Devon and Somerset.

The 2009 Tour will visit a total of 14 venues, some of which will be old favourites of the race like London and Dumfries & Galloway, while others like York and Bideford will be new to The Tour of Britain.

On the way from the Grand Départ in Scunthorpe to the final stage in London, riders will face every kind of challenge that the UK’s roads have to offer, from the rolling roads of the Scottish borders to the tough climbs of Exmoor via windswept coastal roads and much more in between. The route is designed to deliver a worthy overall winner to join the ranks of previous yellow jerseys such as Geoffroy Lequatre, Romain Feillu and Nick Nuyens.

Highland Spring sponsors the race, which is Britain's biggest free-to-attend sporting event with over a million people watching its progress every year. The Tour of Britain is an elite international cycle race and has been given 2.1 status by cycling’s world governing body, the UCI.

Provisional list of Teams and Riders for 2009 Tour of Britain:

Agritubel
1 Lequatre, Geoffroy (FRA)
2 Berges, Emilien (FRA)
3 Bouet, Maxime (FRA)
4 Laurent, Christophe (FRA)
5 Ravard, Anthony (FRA)
6 Vogondy, Nicolas (FRA)

Barloworld
11 Cummings, Stephen (GBR)
12 Froome, Christopher (GBR)
13 Hunter, Robert (RSA)
14 Impey, Daryl (RSA)
15 Soler, Mauricio (COL)
16 Thomas, Geraint (GBR)

Team Columbia-HTC
21 Boasson Hagen, Edvald (NOR)
22 Lovkvist, Thomas (SWE)
23 Martin, Tony (GER)
24 Renshaw, Mark (AUS)
25 Rogers, Michael (AUS)
26 Siutsou, Kanstantsin (BLR)

Rapha Condor
31 Greenwood, Ben (GBR)
32 House, Kristian GBR)
33 Lapthorne, Darren (GBR)
34 Newton, Christopher (GBR)
35 Richardson, Simon (GBR)
36 Southam, Tom (GBR)

Candi-TV-Marshalls Pasta
41 Appleby, Dale (GBR)
42 Briggs, Graham (GBR)
43 Elliott, Malcolm (GBR)
44 Downing, Russell (GBR)
45 Sampson, James (GBR)
46 Williams, Peter (GBR)

Ag2r La Mondiale
51 Roche, Nicolas (IRE)
52 Dion, Renaud (FRA)
53 Goubert, Stephane (FRA)
54 Krivtsov, Yuriy (UKR)
55 Mondory, Lloyd (FRA)
56 Sonnery, Blaise (FRA)

Rabobank
61 Stamsnijder, Tom (NED)
62 Brown, Graeme (AUS)
63 Clement, Stef (NED)
64 Ten Dams, Laurens (NED)
65 Niermann, Grischa (GER)
66 Posthuma, Joost (NED)

CSF Navigare
71 Finetto, Mauro (ITA)
72 Frapporti, Marco (ITA)
73 Canuti, Frederico (ITA)
74 Pozzovivo, Domenico (ITA)
75 Savini, Filippo (ITA)
76 Zen, Enrico (ITA)

Joker Bianchi
81 Kristoff, Alexander (NOR)
82 Willmann, Frederik (NOR)
83 Remme, Stian (NOR)
84 Sortveit, Sondre (NOR)
85 Nordhaug, Lars Petter (NOR)
86 Stake Laengen, Vegard (NOR)

Garmin-Slipstream
91 Wiggins, Bradley (GBR)
92 Duijn, Huub (NED)
93 Lowe, Trent (AUS)
94 Peterson, Tom (USA)
95 Sutton, Chris (AUS)
96 Van Der Velde, Ricardo (NED)

Topsport Vlaanderen
101 De Ketele, Kenny (BEL)
102 Criel, Tom (BEL)
103 De Gendt, Thomas (BEL)
104 Vandewalle, Kristof (BEL)
105 Vanheule, Bart (BEL)
106 Vanspeybrouck, Pieter (BEL)

Cervelo Test Team
111 Appollonio, Davide (ITA)
112 Deignan, Philip (IRE)
113 Fleeman, Dan (GBR)
114 LLoyd, Daniel (GBR)
115 Hunt, Jeremy (GBR)
116 Reimer, Martin (GER)

Team Katusha
121 Swift, Ben (GBR)
122 Karpets, Vladimir (RUS)
123 Napolitano, Danilo (ITA)
124 Pozzato, Filippo (ITA)
125 Petrov, Evgueni (RUS)

Team Halfords Bikehut
131 Clancy, Edward (GBR)
132 Hayles, Robert (GBR)
133 McNally, Mark (GBR)
134 Partridge, Robert (GBR)
135 Tennant, Andrew (GBR)
136 Wilkinson, Ian (GBR)

Euskatel Euskadi
141 Aramendia, Javier (ESP)
142 Fdez de Larrea, Koldo (ESP)
143 Velasco, Ivan (ESP)
144 De Lis, Sergio (ESP)
145 Agirre, Josu (ESP)
146 Azanza, Jorge (ESP)

Vaconsoleil
151 Ruijgh, Rob (NED)
152 Berkhout, Thomas (NED)
153 Cooke, Baden (AUS)
154 Honig, Reinier (NED)
155 Mol, Wouter (NED)
156 Mortensen, Martin (DEN)

ISD-Neri
161 Huzarsky, Bartozs (POL)
162 Clarke, Simon (AUS)
163 De Negri, Pierpaolo (ITA)
164 Colo', Alessandro (ITA)
165 Stannard, Ian Dexter (GBR)
166 Ricci Bitti, Davide (ITA)