CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious announced yesterday their squad for the UK’s premier professional cycling event, the Men’s Tour of Britain, which gets underway today.
The event is part of a busy period in the racing calendar. Along with the culmination of the Vuelta a Espana, the coming week sees the British race, which features a total of 946.5km over six stages.
Three are relatively challenging hilly days and three favour faster riders. There will be many awkward sections during the week, not least because British country roads are narrow and winding, and there is very likely to be some wind along the way, especially from the North Sea on the last day.
Starting from the small Scottish border town of Kelso, and finishing on the Suffolk coast in Felixstowe, the peloton will pass through a few regions of the country, including the Scottish Borders, Tees Valley, South Yorkshire, West Northamptonshire, and East Suffolk.
Bahrain Victorious sports director Roman Kreuziger commented about the route: “The first three stages are quite demanding: not big hills but always up and down. It’s a very technical course. The roads themselves are not easy and we’ll have to wait a bit to see what the wind will be like.
“The level is high – four WorldTour teams and three very solid Pro Conti teams. We have to be active from day one because the first stage will be key to understanding who wants to control the race and how it will develop.
“The opening stage starts and finishes on the cobblestones of Kelso, and looks straightforward on paper, but a short climb with 24km to go could lead to some early action and spoil the best laid plans of a few teams.
“Wednesday’s profile is more challenging, with numerous short, steep tests along the 152.7 kms between Darlington and Redcar, and the following day is tough right from the start in Sheffield. The finish in Barnsley is characterised by several ascents on the approach to a 400m uphill drag to the line.
“Stages four (Derby-ewark-on-Trent, 139.2km), five (Northampton-Northampton, 147.2km) and six (Lowestoft-Felixstowe, 158.7km) are all predicted to end with a bunch sprint. “
Kreuziger said of the Bahrain Victorious line-up: “We’ve brought Nicolo (Buratti), Matevz (Govekar) and Zamba (Edoardo Zambanini) to look out for any bigger breaks that might make it to the finish.
“They’re all in good shape, especially Zamba, who could be our plan B for the general classification (GC). Wout (Poels) and Pello (Bilbao) are the older guys looking at the other team leaders.
“Vlad Van Mechelen is a young sprinter who only joined us as a trainee last month, but has already shown at the Deutschland Tour that he can do a job. But for him this is mainly about learning, of course.
“We are confident that Matevz should be the sprinter for stages four to six. If we see his shape is good and he gets through the first three days well, we’d like to give him the opportunity to go for it in the second half of the race.”
Bahrain’s leader for the 20th edition of the Tour of Britain is Basque GC rider Bilbao, while Poels will be the road captain.
“We’re happy to come to the Tour of Britain because it’s an event where we can bring some seasoned riders to fight for victory, and with them some younger guys, who can ride alongside WorldTour pros and riders from lower ranked teams, to measure how they are progressing,” said Kreuziger.
Today’s first stage sets off from Kelso at 12.30pm, Bahrain time.
&uuid=(email))