THE VETERAN PETER WILLIAMS
I’ve been racing for UK-based teams for my whole career so I know this is always the highlight of the season. You get the big teams and the crowds, so for British teams and sponsors it is the most important race. It’s crazy how many people follow it, even people you don’t expect to. I remember in 2012 around the London Olympics the crowds doubled in size, and that has carried on ever since.
You always get a buzz from racing on your home roads and the last Tour of Britain went around the Ribble valley, which meant I was on my own training roads. It is pretty special. Even now when I go out riding it brings up memories. If you race on your home roads, you get a good kick out of that and it stays with you forever. That’s what the Tour of Britain means to riders. The 2012 race was also a highlight for me as the crowds were so big and the likes of Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish were there. I was going well that year (finishing 31st)
so that was particularly enjoyable. When you’re younger you can get overwhelmed by riding alongside the big names, but as you get older and more experienced it all becomes more normal. At first it’s strange to be racing with these guys you’ve seen on the TV. I can even remember racing against Lance Armstrong as a kid in one race. I had watched him on TV so that was surreal. But the more experienced you get, you just see them as other bike riders.
The other thing you understand more about as you get older is how important the Tour of Britain is to the cycling teams’ sponsors, who are the ones who pay the bills at the end of the day. The team has to try to get the most exposure from this race. You could have a guy who is going well in the top 15, but that might not get much exposure.
So is it better to use our energy and form in different ways to try to get our sponsors more exposure? That is why you get a lot of the British-based teams going for breakaways. It depends on what the people who are paying the bills want you to do. Sometimes the riders don’t want to go off the front but that’s what they’re being told to do. You have to look at it rationally to get the most out of the event for yourself and for your sponsors.
I always make a decision as to which stages I can best help my team on, based on my fitness and my form. As a more experienced rider, I have taken on a different role in recent years, like being a road captain and just passing on some experience to the younger guys. The difficult thing is having the ability to recover day in, day out, and knowing when to use your energy.
Eight days is a big hit so you have to prepare your body so you don’t break down. Historically, you would go into the Tour of Britain with a season’s worth of racing behind you. But because of Covid, my team has not done a UCI race since March 2020, whereas the other WorldTour teams have been ticking away all year. So I imagine the gap between the top boys and the level below will be bigger this year.
But I have to be honest: it’s really nice to have all your coffee and breakfast made for you! In fact, it’s easier than being at home. Somebody takes your bag to the bus and people drive you to the start. All you have to do is pedal your bike. Now that I’m a bit older, and I have two kids, I appreciate all that a bit more.