The UK’s premier elite men’s race returns in a new format this September, now run by British Cycling. The Tour of Britain Men looked like it could be in doubt at times over the past year, but it is now back, with new sponsorship too, from Lloyds Bank.
A familiar, tough route, which takes place over six stages from Kelso in Scotland to Felixstowe in Suffolk, beginning on 3 September, will see riders tackle a variety of terrain, from lumpy courses in the opening days, to a final fast sprint stage, all on Britain’s grippy roads.
The race has lost two stages, and is now a six-day affair, to make it equal with the Tour of Britain Women, which was held in June.
Four major WorldTour teams are set to be on the start line in Scotland, including Ineos Grenadiers with their star Olympian Tom Pidcock, and Soudal-Quick Step with their own star Olympian in Remco Evenepoel, winner of the road race and time trial in Paris. Being a former Vuelta a España winner, Evenepoel will surely be the favourite, but in his own team he will face competition from a former ToB winner, Julian Alaphilippe. The other two WorldTour teams will be Bahrain Victorious and DSM-Firmenich-PostNL.
However, Visma-Lease a Bike, the team of last year’s race winner Wout van Aert, have opted to sit out the race this year. In Pidcock, Alaphilippe and Evenepoel, the Tour of Britain boasts a stellar line-up at its top end.
The WorldTour lot will be joined by three ProTeams – Uno-X Mobility, Israel-Premier Tech and Q36.5 – and 11 Continental teams, plus a Great Britain national team. Being the only two British Continental teams left, Saint Piran and Trinity will both be hoping to make an impact on their home race.
Saint Piran were regularly visible in 2023, with Jack Rootkin-Gray and Alex Richardson often on the attack on home roads. The Cornwall-based team eventually recorded its best ever result in the general classification through Zeb Kyffin, who finished sixth overall. With no Rootkin-Gray, Richardson or Kyffin this year, the squad will be forced to bring different faces to the fore. One of those is Will Tidball, world champion in the scratch race on the track. “From the first stage to the last, the support for us on the roadside [last year] gave me goosebumps,” Tidball said.
“When you are at your limit and you see Saint Piran flags and hear your name called, it gives that little bit more motivation. The opportunity to race in this spectacle is a dream come true. At Saint Piran we race all over the world but the Tour of Britain is truly special.”
Tour of Britain stages
Tour of Britain contenders
Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
Belgium
ToB starts: 0
The Olympic road race and time trial gold medallist competes in Britain for the first time since becoming time trial world champion in Glasgow last August. Still only 24, Evenepoel is the outstanding favourite to triumph in what will be his first ever participation in the Tour of Britain. As well as aiming for overall victory, the Tour de France’s third-placed finisher and best young rider will also be targeting stage wins along the way. Stages two and three seem primed for one of his trademark solo attacks in the final hour of racing, especially with bonus seconds available for the first three riders to summit the last climb on each day.
Supported by a very strong Soudal Quick-Step team, Evenepoel, who also won the 2022 Vuelta a España, will be confident of becoming the third Belgian winner in four years, after Wout van Aert’s two victories in 2021 and 2023.
Julian Alaphilippe
Soudal Quick-Step
France
ToB starts: 2
ToB best result: 1st, GC, 2018
Winner of the race in 2018, when he won a stage and finished second in another two, the likeable Frenchman lines up once again for his last stage race for Soudal-Quick Step before moving to Tudor Cycling, the Swiss team run by Fabian Cancellara.
Although he has won three times in 2024, including a memorable stage victory at the Giro d’Italia, judged by his previous lofty standards, the two-time world champion has struggled for consistent form since 2022. Nevertheless, he will be one of Soudal's two GC options along with Remco Evenepoel, and he will be among the contenders to win the opening three stages. On his last appearance in the race, back in 2021, Alaphilippe finished third on GC and came close to winning three stages. A Soudal one-two is not out of the question.
Tom Pidcock
Ineos Grenadiers
Great Britain
ToB starts: 3
ToB best result: 2nd, GC, 2022
The Olympic mountain bike champion competes in his fourth Tour of Britain, looking for an as yet elusive stage victory. After making his debut as a promising 19-year-old in the 2018 edition, he finished second overall and took the points jersey in the curtailed 2022 edition, cut short due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Last year, he was fifth on GC going into the final weekend, but saddle sores forced his withdrawal, bringing the curtain down on his season.
Perhaps surprisingly given his array of talents, the Ineos Grenadiers leader has only won five road races as a pro. Can he add to his tally in his home tour? Stage three takes place in his native Yorkshire and its parcours lends itself to Pidcock’s strengths
Joe Blackmore
Israel-Premier Tech
Great Britain
ToB starts: 0
21-year-old former mountain biker Blackmore has enjoyed a breakthrough season with multiple wins and an early step up to the WorldTour ranks. Last week, he won the Tour de l'Avenir, the first ever Brit to do so. Probably the most in-form rider at the race, given he won a six-stage race most recently.
Matej Mohorič
Bahrain-Victorious
Slovenia
ToB starts: 0
Mohorič makes his debut for a very strong Bahrain-Victorious team who will be Soudal Quick-Step’s principal rivals during the six days of racing. There might be few long, twisting descents for Mohorič to deploy his dropper post, as he famously did en route to winning Milan-San Remo in 2022, but the Slovenian will like the look of the finishing parcours of stages two and three.
The three-time Tour de France stage winner has won just once outside of his national time trial championships this year, but is a threat any time he finds himself at the front of the race in the latter stages. The lack of hills in the last few stages won’t deter him: he has gone long on flat days and won sprints before, including at the Tour de France.
Ethan Hayter
Ineos Grenadiers
Great Britain
ToB starts: 3
ToB best result: 2nd, GC, 2021
In the 2021 Tour of Britain, Hayter was engaged in a thrilling and tense battle with Wout van Aert and Julian Alaphilippe, picking up two stage wins along the way (including a team time trial victory) and finishing second on GC to Van Aert by just six seconds. Since then, the Londonder’s form has been more sporadic, largely thanks to his commitment to the track, where he won silver in the team pursuit at Paris 2024 but missed out on a medal in the omnium.
The 25-year-old has continued to rack up the wins on the road, though, including time trials, sprints and short uphill finishes, and given the reigning British champion’s versatility, he could feasibly be victorious in all six stages at this year’s race. After five years at Ineos, this will be one of his last races for the British team as the VC Londres graduate moves to Soudal- Quick Step for next year.
Ethan Vernon
Israel-Premier Tech
Great Britain
ToB starts: 3
ToB best result: 2nd, GC, 2023
Fresh from winning a silver medal at the Paris Olympics in the team pursuit, a result that the 23-year-old has vowed to upgrade to gold in Los Angeles in 2028, Vernon is racing his fourth Tour of Britain in six years. Vernon is arguably the fastest rider at this race, and has a good chance of winning any of the expected three sprints. He will have extra motivation to triumph on stage five in Northampton, with his home in Bedford less than 30 miles away.
Vernon is in his first of three seasons at Israel-Premier Tech after two years at Soudal- Quick Step where he picked up eight victories, including two at WorldTour level. With track taking a backseat in the coming years, he is hoping to establish himself as one of the best fastmen in the peloton, and he will have a powerful leadout supporting him in his home race, including Coventry-born Jake Stewart.
Home hopes
Stage one starts in Kelso, the hometown of Oscar Onley, and the Scot will be DSM-Firmenich PostNL’s GC hope at the race. The 21-year-old won a stage of the Tour Down Under in January and will be optimistic of finishing on the podium. His team-mate and fellow Scotsman, 24-year-old Sean Flynn, could be in contention during the sprint stages.
Israel-Premier Tech boasts another potential British winners of the race in their six-man team: Stevie Williams. 28-year-old Welshman Williams has enjoyed his best ever season, winning La Flèche Wallonne and the Tour Down Under, and making his Tour de France debut.
Cousins Connor and Ben Swift, both former British champions, will be riding for Ineos Grenadiers, with stage three taking place on the former's home roads.
Saint Piran’s Ollie Wood picked up silver in the men’s team pursuit at Paris 2024, testament to the Yorkshireman's rapid turn of speed. Fellow fastman 19-year-old Matthew Brennan will be leading a composite Team GB that includes Ben Wiggins, son of 2012 Tour de France champion Bradley.
Tour of Britain stage guide
Stage 1
Tuesday 3 September
Kelso > Kelso (181.9km)
The first two stages of the Tour of Britain Men are, according to British Cycling, set to be the hardest in the race’s history with more than 5,000m of elevation gain on the menu as the race kicks off in the Scottish borders before moving into northern England. Stage one takes place solely in the Scottish borders, starting and finishing in the town of Kelso. Once under way, the riders will travel through Coldstream, Melrose, Denholm, Jedburgh and St Boswells on the way back to the finish.
The course features three categorised climbs – Scott’s View, Dingleton and Dunion Hill – with the riders tackling the first two twice as part of two loops making up the wider course. Scott’s View is 2.5km in length with a relatively easy average gradient of just 2.5%, but after tackling it for the first time, the riders face 10km of undulating terrain before they reach the Dingleton climb in the Eildon Hills. This is much tougher, with an average gradient of 6.2% across 2km. Once over the top, the route continues south to take on Dunion Hill, then descends into Jedburgh before returning to Kelso. The riders then complete the loop containing Scott’s View and Dingleton again, before heading back into the centre of Kelso for a fast and furious finish.
As well as the three climbs, there are three intermediate sprints offering time bonuses and points for the sprinters.
Stage 2
Wednesday 4 September
Darlington > Redcar (152.1km)
The second stage is set to be another one for the climbers as the race heads into the North York Moors National Park and takes on a handful of ascents around the coastline surrounding Whitby, before the finish in Redcar. After the riders roll out of Darlington, the race travels through Middleton St George, Eaglescliffe, Yarm and Stokesley on the way to the moors.
With the day’s first intermediate sprint out of the way at Stokesley, the peloton travels east to take on several unclassified climbs around the villages of Commondale, Castleton and Danby, before reaching the first categorised King of the Mountains climb at Ugglebarnby, a short, sharp 1km ascent averaging 8% gradient.
The race then heads down to sea level at Robin Hood’s Bay, before climbing up Raw Pasture Bank at an average of 7.5%. It then heads past Whitby Abbey before dropping into the seaside town itself. From there, the riders head to the final categorised climb, the 1.7km drag up Lythe Bank at an 7.7% average gradient, before heading through Staithes and into Redcar and Cleveland.
Once into Redcar, the peloton tackles a small finishing circuit featuring many of the roads used in this year’s National Championships, which were won by Ethan Hayter in the men's race, and Pfeiffer Georgi in the women’s event.
The finishing circuit includes two ascents of Saltburn Bank, which could provide the stage winner with an opportunity to make a decisive move. Despite being just 300m in length, the climb averages over 14% and has a pitch of more than 22% near the summit. The final kilometres of the day are likely to be exposed to the wind coming off the North Sea, meaning that crosswinds could make an impact, as the finish gradually winds towards Zetland Park
Stage 3
Thursday 5 September
Sheffield > Barnsley (166.1km)
The third stage of this year’s race will provide yet another tough climbing test, with more than 2,700m of elevation gain across a series of punchy climbs. The riders face three main King of the Mountains ascents at Loxley, Oughtibridge and Hound Hill on the outskirts of the finish in Barnsley.
Starting from Arundel Gate in Sheffield city centre, the race heads north to Barnsley via Rotherham and Doncaster. The climbing kicks off almost immediately in the heart of the Peak District. The first climb, Long Lane near Loxley, comes after just 20km of racing. Despite being just 1km in length, Long Lane packs a punch with an average gradient of 9%. A descent follows before Jawbone Hill, near Oughtibridge, which at 1.7km with an average gradient of 9%, is the toughest climb on the menu.
From there, the race circles Doncaster and the north of Barnsley before the decisive point of the day, Hound Hill. Riders face a series of uncategorised climbs before they reach the base of the hill, which is 1.5km, averaging 7%. Hound Hill comes just 4km from the finish, meaning it will be circled in riders' roadbooks as a key jump point for a potential stage victory. While the final climb is likely to be decisive, the last 800m of the stage are uphill through the streets of Barnsley to the finish with a 7% incline.
Stage 4
Friday 6 September
Derby > Newark (138.5km)
The fourth stage sees the Tour of Britain return to Derbyshire for the first time since 2015, and includes a stage start for Derby for the first time in the modern race’s history. As the race heads from Derby to Newark-on-Trent, those who aren’t climbing specialists can enjoy a day of relative respite, with just 1,229m of elevation gain on the menu. The stage features no categorised climbs.
After starting outside the Derby track cycling arena, the race passes through an array of local villages and towns, including Elvaston, Borrowash, West Hallam and Heanor, before crossing the county border into Nottinghamshire. Once into Robin Hood county, the race snakes its way through Eastwood, Hucknall, Ravenshead, Blidworth, Southwell and Tuxford, before crossing over the River Trent and continuing southward towards the finish near Devon Park in Newark-on-Trent.
As they approach the finish, the sprinters present will be able to duke it out at the day’s intermediate sprint point at Collingham, where there will be both sprint points and bonus seconds available as a warm-up for the day’s conclusion. The race has ended in sprint finishes on both of its prior visits to Newark, with winners including Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) in 2017 and Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) in 2023, and it is likely to do so once more this time around, with the final straight to the finish being relatively flat.
Stage 5
Saturday 7 September
Northampton > Northampton (146.9km)
The penultimate stage sees the men’s race visit West Northamptonshire for the first time as the town of Northampton gets to play host to both the start and finish of stage five. Even though it will be the first time the Tour of Britain Men has visited the county, the Women’s Tour has visited on three previous occasions – once in May 2014, and then again in 2017 and 2018.
Two categorised climbs feature on the route, Bullshill and Newnham Hill, which are both category-three ascents, and they are the final climbing tests of the 2024 edition of the race. Fans heading to Northamptonshire to catch the race in person will find that the day is ideally suited to spectators, with minimal travel needed between the start and finish locations.
After rolling out of the Waterside Campus of Northampton University, the race heads west and passes through Daventry. It then heads south onto a loop just below the town, featuring both of the climbs of the day. From there the riders head through Abthorpe, Wappenham, Helmdon, Culworth, Byfield and Hellidon, before looping back around Northampton and heading through Watford, West Haddon, Naseby, Kelmarsh and Brixworth. The peloton then passes through Sywell and Ecton as the course winds its way back towards the town centre and the finish line.
Stage 6
Sunday 8 September
Lowestoft > Felixstowe (158.4km)
After hosting an action packed stage last year, won by Wout van Aert, the coastal Suffolk town of Felixstowe will mark the finale of this year’s race. While there will be just 817m of climbing, it doesn’t mean there is no threat of losing time on the final day. The coastal roads that feature are bound to provide plenty of North Sea wind for the peloton to contend with. As well as the risk of crosswinds developing, the three intermediate sprints at Beccles, Aldeburgh and Grundisburgh all offer bonus seconds, which may prove invaluable if the time gaps are still close. The stage starts on Lowestoft promenade, and then heads inland via Beccles and Bungay before reaching some of the county’s best-known villages and market towns. It’s then out through Halesworth, Framlingham and Saxmundham, before the race heads back towards the coast to pass through Thorpeness and Aldeburgh.
After leaving Aldeburgh, the race visits Snape, Wickham Market, Kesgrave, and Martlesham, before looping back towards Felixstowe and the same finish as last year, on Sea Road.
The finish itself has a large sweeping left-hand bend as it comes into the final straight, which is where van Aert launched his stage-winning surge, attacking into the bend before pulling away. Those who have done their homework may be able to try something similar.
