Tour of Britain

A national stagerace which really crosses a country from north to south! Even if that will bring quite a lot of disruption, when it comes to transfers, to the Movistar Team and all squads competing at the 2022 Tour of Britain, it’s something to applaud that the organisers are making such an effort to cover most of their territory in just eight days of racing, starting in the Scottish mountains and ending in a not-so-usual place for cycling, the Isle of Wight.

All stages will contain, with the only major exception being day five to Mansfield -Thursday 8th- as a clear bunch sprint chance, a lumpy course with 2,000 to 2,500m elevation gain per day, which offers chances to the breakaways, allrounders and most importantly punchy classics specialists (Van der Poel, Alaphilippe and Van Aert have been the most recent winners). The race starts, however, with a mountain-top finish in Glenshee (Sunday 4th), over a final 3km at almost 6%, which should start defining the GC outcome.

The other stages which could potentially make things difficult for the fastest riders are three. Monday 5th, the peloton will tackle several little climbs en route to Duns. Wednesday 7th, it will be the turn of the demanding Carlton Bank KOM (2km at 10%) with 27km to go, plus the non-categorized Newgate Bank (700m at 9%) just 9km from the finish in Helmsley. And Friday 9th, which will see the riders take on Crawley Hill and another non-rated ascent into the last 25km towards Gloucester. The final day’s finish in The Needles is also an uphill one.