Rod Ellingworth, the brand new race director of the Tour of Britain, is hoping to persuade Olympic gold medalists Remco Evenepoel and Tom Pidcock to journey this yr’s race in early September.
The British stage race has been revived by British Cycling after the earlier organisers declared chapter and even struggled to pay prices and prize cash from current editions of the race. Lloyds Bank has offered vital sponsorship for the race and British Cycling, with the boys’s and girls’s editions of the Tour of Britain thought of a key a part of a wider biking technique in Britain.
Lotte Kopecky received the four-day version of the ladies’s Tour of Britain in june. The males’s race will probably be over six phases between 3-8 September.
The males’s Tour of Britain historically presents a perfect path to the street race world championships, with earlier winners together with Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and Julian Alaphilippe.
Ellingworth hopes to see Evenepoel, Pidcock and others on the beginning line in Scotland, together with different big-name riders.
“We’d like to see Tom Pidcock towards Remco Evenepoel on the Tour of Britain. It’d be cool to see two Olympic champions up towards one another,” he instructed Cyclingnews.
“I believe the route would swimsuit Remco very well and it’d be nice for British biking followers to see Tom race on dwelling roads after he received gold within the mountain bike race in Paris.”
Ellingworth is working for the Tour of Britain in a consultancy function after quite a few years as a efficiency director after which group supervisor at Team Sky, Bahrain and Ineos Grenadiers.
He has visited a number of races and talked to groups to assist rebuild the status of the Tour of Britain after the failures of earlier organiser Sweetspot. Some groups have deliberate race schedules with out the Tour of Britain however others are keen on returning to British roads. The Tour of Britain has nonetheless to disclose the group for this yr’s race.
“I don’t have any affirmation on riders but however we’ve been speaking to groups. I noticed that Remco’s group supervisor Patrick Lefevere indicated that the Tour of Britain may very well be his first journey again after the Olympics. He’d be very welcome,” Ellingworth mentioned.
“Some of the groups have began to ship of their entry listing, so we will see who’s coming, however there is not any affirmation on anyone but. A number of riders have ridden the Tour of Britain previously to arrange for the World Championships and I believe this yr’s hilly course world once more.”