The Tour of Britain and Brighton & Hove – 10 things you might not know
The first cycle race staged over several days in the UK was the Southern Grand Prix in Kent in August 1944. It was won by Les Plume of Manchester.
A year later the British League of Racing Cyclists (BLRC) staged a bigger event, the Victory Cycling Marathon, to celebrate the end of the World War 2. It ran from Brighton to Glasgow in five stages and was won by Robert Batot of France.
The tour started a long-standing link between Brighton and the UK’s main cycle road race. The Tour’s predecessor was staged between Brighton and Glasgow or Brighton and Newcastle between 1945 and 1953.
At one time, Britain’s main staged road race was called the Milk Race, held from 1958 to 1993 and sponsored by the now-defunct Milk Marketing Board.
Because of its circuitous route from Camberley, the stage finishing in Brighton & Hove, Stage 7, is the longest of the Tour at 225km.
Cyclingnews.com says Sir Bradley Wiggins’ bike – a Pinarello Dogma 65 and is a fairly standard machine and “it's little different from what anyone with a spare US$12,000 can purchase off the shelf.”
Minimum bike weights allowed in the race are around 15lbs or 7 kilograms. Bikes from London’s Bike Hire Scheme weigh about 50lbs, or 23 kilograms.
Within Brighton & Hove there will be 150 stewards and volunteers employed - for an hour - to oversee traffic management and enforce road closures. There are 32 police motorcyclists to clear the route for the riders.
Over 2,000 metal crush barriers will line the course after the “flamme rouge" – a red marker showing 1km to the finish.
We’ve had to remove the central reservation at the entrance to Madeira Drive so the riders have an uninterrupted swing into the finish straight.