Taking a closer look What the Tour of Britain’s county route reveals
WE now know the route of the Tour of Britain when it visits Gloucestershire for stage six on September 9. It leave Tewkesbury and finishes in Gloucester docks, just 10 miles away.
But between that is a course of 169km taking in the Cotswolds, Cirencester and Yate in South Gloucestershire. And we’ve noticed some things about it.
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You read that correctly. A day’s ride of 169km, or 105 miles, is plenty for us, especially as part of an eight-day tour. But it’s a moderately short day for the pros.
They are used to riding closer to 200km (124 miles) in a big event. It does mean the course is...
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Sprint finishes, like the one in Cheltenham in 2017, are great – full of colour and speed and a hint of danger. But race directors like to mix it up a bit, to give everyone a chance.
The best way to do that is to add hills, and there are plenty in the Gloucestershire stage. The route heads for the Cotswolds as soon as it leaves Tewkesbury and keeps going up and down until Yate.
It then tracks back up along the edge of the range of hills until finally getting back to Gloucester. It is designed to give non-sprinters as many chances as they can to get away from the peloton.
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You want to get up close to the riders and see them warming up, or down, and nose into the amazing team buses? Go to the start, or the finish.
Or both! You can do that with them being so close together.
Its (relatively) short ...Hilly It’s a great route for spectators
You want the colour of more than 100 pro cyclists rising in a close bunch, much tighter than seems wise or safe, and to hear the noise of the hubs as they whizz by faster than you’d imagine? Go to Bishop’s Cleeve just after the start, before the hills kick in, and you’ll see the peloton in all its glory.
You want to see exactly how amazing pro cyclists are? Pick a steep, nasty, painful hill (you’ve plenty to choose from). Walk up it or, better, ride your bike up it.
Then watch as the pros either sprint up it or cruise up it. Either way, they’re going faster than you were. You want to see pain? Pick another hill – preferably one towards the end of the stage.
Look out for a domestique – a rider who works for the benefit of the team rather than to win the race – whose day is done as he hauls himself to the top so he can look after his team leader all over again. Or look for those trying to reel in a breakaway
You want to see glory? Go to Gloucester for the finish.
We can’t say how the stage will pan out, but a breakaway rider could ride home to exhausted victory, a couple or five riders who got away from the bunch might sprint it out, dog-tired, or the whole peloton could be charging right towards you in a mad and terrifying dash for the line. Whichever it is, you will be thrilled… and deeply impressed at these people with insane strength and endurance and speed.
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A bike race through some of the most beautiful countryside in the UK, while the leaves are just starting to think about turning, but while summer’s kiss is still on the ground? Glorious.
TV coverage will make the most of it all. And the county will look simply fabulous,
Gloucestershire will look AMAZING
Picture: Tour of Britain especially from the helicopter shots.
You think you know Gloucestershire… be prepared to be blown away.
And goodness knows what it will do to those people who don’t know our little patch so well. Just pray for dry weather.
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South Gloucestershire gets a look in, and it means there’s no messing around
The organisers say this is the first-ever stage of the Tour to be entirely within Gloucestershire. Which is true if you accept South Gloucestershire as part of Gloucestershire.
(Which is fine. We’re happy to do so – it was part of Gloucestershire until the 1970s. But they might start acknowledging that rather than pretending to be Bristolians, in that case)
But to get down to Yate from the north of the county where most of the bigger towns are means there’s very little room for meandering.
Apart from a diversion around Cheltenham, and a trip to Cam and Dursley on the way back, the route is largely down the Cotswolds and back up again – this is no leisurely pleasure ride.
» Cheltenham misses out (as does the Forest)
It’s hard to complain, really. Cheltenham got the stage finish of the Saturday, penultimate stage in 2017. And what a great day it was.
And Cheltonians are almost ideally placed if they want to see both the start and finish and do less travelling than anyone else. It’s an easy trip to Tewkesbury and an easy trip to Gloucester.
But being Centre for the Cotswolds and not actually in the Cotswolds means the desire to send riders over as many hills and possible means the race comes no closer than Bishop’s Cleeve, Winchcombe or the A40 out past Charlton Kings. Close. But no yellow jersey
And the route is strictly east of the Severn, which is a shame, but the Forest does get the Women’s Tour in June.