The 2010 Tour of Britain will once again take place over eight days, beginning in Rochdale on Saturday 11th September and finishing at the heart of London on Saturday 18th September.

For the race, we’re due to have a glittering line-up of World, Olympic and Commonwealth Champions, plus a whole host of stage winners from the world’s biggest races.

Leading the way are British Olympians Steve Cummings, Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins, who boast nine Olympic medals between them, with the latter trio all Gold medallists from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The 17 teams taking part in the 2010 Tour of Britain also list a number of World Champions from the road and velodrome among their provisional line-ups. Nine former senior World Champions are currently due to take to the start line in Rochdale, with 25 World titles amassed between them.

Current National Champions are well represented too, with the Road Race Champions jerseys from Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, Brazil and Australia all due to be on show in the peloton, while the Time Trial Champions of Australia, Germany and Italy are also riding The Tour of Britain.

A number of former British National Champions will also ride, including former British Road Race Champions Hunt, Matt Stephens, Kristian House and Russell Downing, while Roger Hammond is expected to join this number.

The provisional rider line-up (available here) also boasts stage winners from all three Grand Tours, with HTC – Columbia’s André Greipel the most successful, having won four stages in the Vuelta a España and two in the Giro d’Italia, while Robbie Hunter, Baden Cooke and Heinrich Haussler are all Tour de France stage winners.

Another nine riders have also graced the top step of the podium at a Great Tour, including Britain’s Bradley Wiggins at the Giro d’Italia this May.

The Route:

8 thrilling stages, starting in the North of England and coming round to finish on the streets of London. Last years final stage was a brilliant show for cycling and hopefully this year the sun will be shining and a home rider can bring the peloton over the line.

• Stages 3, 4 and 5 look to be the ‘hilliest’ with nothing in the UK going to challenge the riders quite like a long alpine ascent – The Tour of Britain returns to Wales for the first time since 2004 with what will be an exciting stage that heads south from Newtown to Swansea, with the fearsome Constitution Hill, one of the steepest residential roads in the UK, featuring in the final kilometres.
• Stage 6 looks almost pan flat (anyone who’s ridden the Fens sportive will know that even railway flyovers are a welcome incline!) – Having looped through King’s Lynn, the riders leave the town, heading towards Castle Rising and on to the Sandringham Estate. Sandringham has been home to four generations of monarchs and is the country retreat for Her Majesty The Queen and the Royal Family. Feel free to bow now!
• The final stage 8 will feature closed central London roads for an amazing spectacle – Once again The Tour of Britain will culminate in a fast-paced action pack stage in the capital, with this year’s final stage being hosted by the Olympic and Para Olympic Borough of Newham. Starting and finishing on Royal Albert Way outside the London Borough of Newham’s offices on Newham Dockside, also the location for a free cycling festival, the stage will then take in eight clockwise laps of the circuit before the final sprint of the 2010 Tour of Britain.

Latest News:

Team Sky Green ‘save the rainforest’ kit:

Team Sky will be helping to save one billion trees in the Amazon rainforest during the Tour of Britain. Team Sky have 6 riders in the race, Steve Cummings, Russell Downing, Mathew Hayman, Greg Henderson, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins – who will be wearing a unique Sky Rainforest Rescue kit. This includes branded jerseys, glasses, helmets, water bottles, saddles and bikes while Team Sky staff will also be wearing 100% recycled sunglasses.

Haussler gets back on his bike:

Heinrich Haussler will be back in action for the first time since his July knee surgery when he lines up for the Tour of Britain next Saturday. Lets hope he smiles a bit more than he did when we saw him at the Eurobike show!

Haussler has not been selected for the Australian team for the world championships but is looking to get back to racing before the end of the season.

Joining him for the race are Roger Hammond, Jeremy Hunt, Ignatas Konovalovas, Daniel Lloyd and Martin Reimer, who was third overall in last year’s race.

Let’s hope then that the weather is good enough for us to ride down and watch the peloton pass. The Forest of Bowland is a beautiful part of Lancashire and maybe the boss will let us have a day off in the week to see some of the other stages. Let us know of any stages you wish they’d included and whether your part of the world deserves a shot at hosting the pro peloton. If you ride out to the race send us your pictures in, prizes for any PBK jerseys at the race!