Tour of Britain Mountain Stage Ennui

[andy_wrx]

I still can't see it - they want a big town-centre finish, and a town-centre start.

Blackpool actually stumped-up for both, this year.

They want the crowds there, in the shops/pubs before and after, publicity for the place, facilities, hospitality, etc.



The ToB organisers do try to big it up, with help from ITV4 commentary team and other on-side media, but I do fear that we should accept that cycling is a minority sport in this country and we have a toy little race, with an undemanding route on non-closed roads, where continental teams send their B or C squads to beat our domestic teams.

 

[Skip Madness]

I still can't see it - they want a big town-centre finish, and a town-centre start.

Blackpool actually stumped-up for both, this year.

They want the crowds there, in the shops/pubs before and after, publicity for the place, facilities, hospitality, etc.

What about last year's stage to Dalby Forest, which isn't exactly a buzzing hub of activity? And this year's stage to Yeovil went nowhere near the town centre, finishing next to the football stadium in the residential suburbs. There are already the odd stages where the race diverges from the basic model as outlined above, so I don't see how a stage to somewhere like North Hill or Cleeve Hill - which would all but represent a Minehead or Cheltenham finish anyway - would make much difference.

I do fear that we should accept that cycling is a minority sport in this country and we have a toy little race, with an undemanding route on non-closed roads, where continental teams send their B or C squads to beat our domestic teams.

I just don't see that all of the other (perfectly sound) points in this sentence - cycling being a minority sport, ToB being an event of relatively little prestige, foreign teams sending fairly junior squads - necessitate the other point, a crap route. Even if we were to accept for the sake of argument that a summit finish weren't a possibility, you could still run into population centres like Cheltenham or even Sheffield (there appears to be a decent little climb up to Cam Height only 12km from the very centre of Sheffield - you could fit that and the Snake Pass into the last 45km of a stage) on the back of a short string of decent climbs that might split things up a bit without resulting in twenty minute gaps.

 

[Withnail]

Really good thread Skip, and your first post sums up exactly what I was thinking after this year's ToB. At the start of the race I was itching to see the days action on the telly, but by the end I couldn't really care less if I caught it or not. Climbs that I think would be good are Kirkstone (possibly finishing in Windermere straight after), and I remember seeing a clip on Youtube of the Milk Race (I think) when it went up Fleet Moss in the Dales, now that's a proper climb. Start from Durham, go up Swaledale, do Buttertubs with Fleet Moss straight after and you'll get time gaps big enough to be held to a finish in Skipton - that'd be a spectacular stage with not too many road junctions to worry about after the hills start. I won't hold my breath though...

Oh, and I went up Great Dun Fell a few days ago and it is brilliant. Again you could start in Durham/Newcastle, go up Weardale/Teesdale and loop round to Great Dun Fell - really quiet roads and would look stunning for the TV cameras.

 

[Ball]

I'd really like to read the history of the Tour of Britain, including the Milk Race, Kellogg's Tour and PruTour. Does anyone know where I can do so, any decent books/websites/archive items, anything at all? I'd like to know more about the history of it's sponsorship, status, famous events, and lots about its organisation in the past, particularly route planning and some of the harder stages.

 

[Skip Madness]

I can't give you much information about all that, but at the Internet Archive you can view partially archived versions of the websites of the 1998 and 1999 PruTours.

While we're on the subject, check out the profile of stage 4 of the 1999 race: