Tour of Britain 2009 Facts and Figures

11.09.2009

Every year The Tour of Britain produces a wealth of facts and figures.  Here are just a few from this year's edition of Britain's biggest professional bike race.

• Riders of 19 different nationalities will take part in the 2009 Tour of Britain.  The most represented nation is Great Britain, with 24 riders including current British Road Race Champion Kristian House and British Time Trial Champion Bradley Wiggins.  The smallest contingents come from Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Luxembourg, Namibia and the USA, who all have just one rider each competing.
• The riders will tackle 1,201 kilometres as they wend their way from Scunthorpe to London, via Scotland and Devon, the equivalent distance of London to Madrid!  Stage 6 from Frome to Bideford at 183.7 kilometres is the longest, while Stage 8 at just 92.6 kilometres is the shortest.
• Twenty-one King of the Mountains climbs lie between the riders and the finish in London.  Nine of the climbs are Category Three, nine Category Two, while three are the hardest category, Category One.
• Team Columbia – HTC’s Gert Dockx is the youngest rider in the race at 21 years 2 months and eight days, while CandiTV – Marshalls Pasta’s Malcolm Elliott will be the oldest on the Scunthorpe start line at 48 years, 2 months and 11 days.
• Just three former Tour of Britain stage winners will take the start.  They are Emilien Berges, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Filippo Pozzato.
• 64 riders in the 100 rider field are making their Tour of Britain debuts, while Chris Newton is starting his sixth Tour of Britain, having finished the race on all but one occasion previously.
• Nine of the seventeen teams make their Tour of Britain debuts, while three have ridden all six Tours, in various guises.  The three are Barloworld, Topsport Vlaanderen and Team Columbia – HTC.
• A high-class field is headlined by five riders who have won Tour de France stages – Mauricio Soler, Brice Feillu, Cyril Dessel, Kim Kirchen and Filippo Pozzato – while Juan Mauricio Soler is a former winner of the King of the Mountains competition in Le Tour
• Nine past World Champions also start the race, seven of them British riders.
• Seven Olympic medallists take the start, including three members of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Team Pursuit Gold medal squad – Bradley Wiggins, Geraint Thomas and Ed Clancy.
• Eight of the teams competing also rode in the Tour de France this summer, winning twelve stages between them.