Pennines route to Aberdeen finish

CYCLING: This year’s Tour of Britain will include a firstever stage finish in Edinburgh and a testing route across the northern Pennines as the peloton makes its way from Penzance to Aberdeen.

Organisers Sweetspot have unveiled more details of the UCI ProSeries race, scheduled to take place from September 5-12, as they join the dots between Cornwall and Aberdeenshire.

Edinburgh will host the finish of stage seven, which will start in Hawick in the Scottish Borders, the day after a stage from Cumbria to Gateshead.

The opening two stages, the first between Penzance and Bodmin and the brutal second between Sherford in Devon and Exeter via Dartmoor, have already been announced alongside the finale from Stonehaven to Aberdeen.

Stages three and four are due to take place entirely within Wales, but no further details have yet been released due to the different Covid-19 regulations in the country.

Stage five will take the peloton along the Cheshire lanes on a relatively flat route to the golden gates of Warrington, which will be making its debut as a host venue.

It is then back into the hills for a stage linking Cumbria to Gateshead via the Lake District and the climb of the Hartside Pass in the northern Pennines, finishing in the shadow of the Angel of the North.

After stage seven into Edinburgh, the climbing legs will then be needed again on the final day, with the climb of Cairn O’Mount in the Grampian mountains included on the route from Stonehaven to Aberdeen.

The 2020 edition of the race was cancelled due to the pandemic, with this year’s event set to follow roughly 90 per cent of a route that was planned but not announced last year.