Men’s Tour of Britain comes to Sheffield

We have been eagerly awaiting the Men’s Tour of Britain having had a brilliant day out in Wrexham at the Women’s Tour of Britain back in June. With Remco Evenepoel, Julian Alaphilippe and Tom Pidcock all confirmed, it is set to be a fantastic event.

We were excited to learn early on in the race development that there would be a Stage in VeloViewer’s hometown of Sheffield, and it has been fun working with Rod Ellingworth (Race Director), Andy Hawes (Route Director) and their team over the last few months as they planned, recon’d and refined the routes.

The Tour of Britain team use the VeloViewer Race Hub to access and organise all the digital information about all the stages and the Live App in the car during recons to add way markers and refine the route.

Andy Hawes explains how VeloViewer is used in race prep:

“VeloViewer has become an absolute key tool in delivering our events, to the point where, my Route Safety Manager, and I wonder how we planned this type of event before it was available.

It’s essential in the whole process, from when we send the route files to VeloViewer to be put into the Live App, to inserting waymarkers, to the moment we press go – it’s a one stop tool for us now.”

Stage 3, on Thursday 5th September will see riders start in Sheffield city centre and take a meandering route to Barnsley. Stage 3 is 166.1km with a total elevation gain of 2,736m; the most climbing of the 6 stages. Riders will be up & down all day and the route includes three categorised climbs.

Rod Ellingworth talked us through some of the factors that influence decisions about the route:

“There’s such a lot to consider when planning the routes for multi stage races. We obviously want to give spectators a great race to watch, so it needs to be interesting and tough riding. The safety of the riders is always at the front of our minds and when we recon a route we make many adjustments to try to optimise safety.

We also work really closely with local Councils in the months leading up to an event, this is partly to manage the immense logistical feat but also because it is an amazing opportunity to take the event to new places and to give different communities the opportunity to experience the buzz of professional bike racing. We want people from all walks of life to see the race and be inspired to get out on their bikes.”

The biggest climb of the day is the first climb, which is not categorised. This is 6.7km long with an average gradient of 4% gradient. The first half of this climb is neutralised, only the final 3k is part of the route. KM0 is on a wide, flat section of road as you leave the city and enter the Peak District National Park, followed by a draggy climb up Ringinglow Road that will be very familiar to any Sheffield cyclist.

Cat 2 climb – Long Lane

The first categorised climb of the day starts in Hillsborough and is 2.6km long with an average gradient of 5.7%

The current Strava KoM on Long Lane is held by Kiki Savdog – with an impressive time of 6:45.

Cat 2 climb – Jawbone

Jawbone is perhaps the best known climb of the day at 1.6km and an average gradient of 9.9% This climb was part of the 2014 Tour de France when it was the penultimate climb of the day ahead of Jenkin Road. It will provide a great potential launch pad for breakaways in the 2024 Tour of Britain.

The current Strava KoM on Jawbone is held by Timmy The Tank Engine – with a time of 4:37. Notably this is quicker than the fastest Strava time from 2014 TdF which went to Steven Kruijswijk at 4:53.

Cat 2 climb – Hound Hill

At first glance, Hound Hill at 1.4km at 5.6%, might not seem too daunting but the gradient of the initial 200m section is around 13%. The climb tops out just 4k from the finish line, so we might see some jostling while riders try to position themselves for the stage win.

The Strava KoM for Hound Hill is currently held by Peter Haworth with a time of 3:23. We hope you hold onto it next week Peter!