Bristol – Bristol

Like Devon, the city of Bristol – home of race sponsor OVO Energy – has been a big supporter of the Tour of Britain in recent years. After the thoroughly enjoyable double stage of 2016, something of a throwback including a city centre road circuit and time trial on the same day, this year will also see the race start and finish in the city, with countryside in between.

Bristol is the home of Cycling Plus and these are roads, heading out into the North Somerset hills, that we know very well. Cheddar Gorge is the aesthetic highlight of the stage, but it’s the tough climb to the finish on Clifton Down that’ll decide who takes the spoils.

DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY

Andy Hawes: “Shorter stages are in vogue at Grand Tours, but it’s difficult for us to go any lower than 120km as we near today. It’s down to the expectations of our stakeholders. They want the maximum return on their investment, so doing a very short stage and paying the same amount of money possibly doesn’t sit well with them.

“The majority of the route here is within Bristol. We didn’t want to dip too far into Somerset as it didn’t commit any funds. It’s quite short, but we made it as hard as we could.

“Every year we take a look at where the World Championships are being staged, as we always pull in a group of riders looking to do well there, then we try to design a route based on the severity of that. Stages two and three are both tough ones.”