The Tour Blog - Written by 'The Tourist'

14th Mayl 2008

A very busy couple of weeks here at Tour of Britain HQ, although in fact, we’ve hardly spent any time here at HQ, hence the lack of blogging action!

So where have we been? Well, the tech team have, as always, been out checking the routes, meeting with the police, tweaking the odd climb here, removing the odd tricky junction there. But we’ve been quite active on the PR front too, last Friday was our regional launch in Yorkshire, but with a twist….

The Tour has been visiting Yorkshire ever since it’s first edition in 2004 and this year will be no different. The 2008 Yorkshire stage will begin in Hull, but that’s where the twist comes in! As we exit Hull we’ll be heading not north, but south, over the imposing Humber bridge and into North Lincolnshire which most people don’t realise is actually part of the area covered by the Yorkshire Forward regional development agency.

And so, strangely, that is where we found ourselves last Friday announcing the route of the Yorkshire stage of this years event!

There’s another big reason why we chose Waters Edge in Barton on Humber to launch the stage and that’s because a week after the event Barton on Humber will be the official start of the first ever Tour of Britain Mass Participation ride. So it was apt that we got to take a look at the spot where in just over 4 months time as many as 3,000 cyclists will get the chance to do their very own stage of the Tour of Britain. We’ll be making a more formal announcement in the next few weeks, keep your eyes peeled for more news.

Also along for the ride on Friday were some big names past and present from the Yorkshire cycling fraternity. Barras is a name (both past and present) that will be familiar to many and on this occasion it was Tom, son of Sid who came along to smile for the cameras, he was joined by Dean Downing and Malcolm Elliott who were all model professionals, posing for the cameras and even agreeing to an impromptu race on our cycle simulators.

If you want to see pictures of the Yorkshire launch, join our facebook group, Tour of Britain 2008. There we’ll be putting all the stuff that we can’t squeeze onto the website, and of course, keeping an eye on how many friends we’ve got!

See you again soon!

22nd April 2008

Ah, that tricky second blog, now I know how the arctic monkeys felt!

A very busy week at ToB HQ last week, full steam ahead with technical planning means putting in plenty of road miles, there's really no substitute for actually seeing the route in person.

When we go on a routing trip it involves two of us driving the length of the route, following our route from start to finish and noting every junction, traffic light and mini roundabout along with any potential dangers such as traffic calming or very narrow sections. What you get at the end of that is a set of notes that evebtually form the basis of our race manual which is essential bedtime reading for every rider on the race!

So there you are, a little insight into one of the many things we get up to the rest of the year!

Until the next time...

9th April 2008

Thanks for visiting the new Tour of Britain blog. I’m The Tourist and over the next few weeks and months I’ll be guiding you through what’s happening here at Tour of Britain HQ, how preparations for the race are progressing and, during race week itself, what it’s like to be on the inside of the race itself on a daily basis.

So, what’s been happening so far?

Well, since last years race we’ve been busy getting stuck into the route for 2008. Last week we launched the route to the media and our stakeholders at the Transport Museum in Covent Garden, that event was a month ahead of last year, so we’re feeling pretty chipper about that!

The launch itself was a great success for us, stakeholders and sponsors have branded it the best yet and the response from the media to the route has been very positive on the whole. We got to announce a few important new features of the race for this year, namely our new stage in the North East, our awesome new London start and of course the fact that you can watch the race every day this year on ITV4. There will be some pictures from the launch on the gallery over the next few days, so keep checking back for those.

Off the back of the National launch we’ll be moving around the country over the coming weeks and months to unveil each of the different stages in detail, the first stop on our tour will be the South West on the 28th April, so keep a look out on the site for details of that stage, we’ll have a detailed map and profile up on that date so you can go and check out the route for yourself (if you’re brave enough, it’s an absolute killer!)

Thanks for reading the first blog, looking forward to keeping you updated through the year and hope to see you out on the route in September.