Ivan Basso and Samuel Sánchez to feature alongside Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish
The organiser of the Tour of Britain has released the provisional start list for the eight-day race, which begins on Sunday, September 9th. As a 2.1-ranked event in the International Cycling Union (UCI) Europe Tour calendar, there are six WorldTour ProTeams in the total of 16 teams invited, as well as three Professional Continental teams alongside the domestic Continental teams.
The big headlines have been taken by the presence of Team Sky’s Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins and World champion Mark Cavendish, who have already been confirmed for the race, but there will be plenty of other stars on the start line in Ipswich on Sunday.
Former Olympic champion Samuel Sánchez will be leading the Euskaltel-Euskadi team, as he still seeks to rebuild his season after crashing out of the Tour de France in July. The 2011 Tour mountains jersey winner was forced to miss out on the defence of his Olympic title in London, and crashed out of last month’s Tour du Poitou-Charentes with what was thought at the time to be a fractured collarbone.
Thankfully that injury worry was unfounded, and Sánchez will use the roads of Britain to hone his form for the World championships, which will follow just a week later.
Also on the start line will be two-time Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso, at the head of Liquigas-Cannondale, who returns to racing after a relatively quiet ride at the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. Orica-GreenEdge is sending some of its youngest Australian talent to the race, in the shape of Jack Bobridge, Michael Hepburn and Leigh Howard, along with New Zealander Sam Bewley; Bobridge, Hepburn and Bewley last raced in the UK on the boards of the London velodrome, where they took medals in the Olympic Team Pursuit.
Likely to be Cavendish’s biggest rival in the sprints will be Garmin-Sharp’s Tyler Farrar, whose confidence will have been lifted by two stage victories in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.
The never-predictable overall classification though could go any way; there will be no former winners lining up at this year’s start, although last year’s third and ninth places Jan Barta and Leopold König (both of NetApp), as well as British early-season sensation Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (Endura), who finished fifth and took the mountains jersey.
Tour of Britain (2.1) September 9th-16th; Provisional Start List
Sky Procycling
1. Bradley Wiggins (GBr)
2. Mark Cavendish (GBr)
3. Bernhard Eisel (Aut)
4. Jeremy Hunt (GBr)
5. Christian Knees (Ger)
6. Thomas Löfkvist (Swe)
Endura Racing
11. Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (GBr)
12. Iker Camano (Spa)
13. Russell Downing (GBr)
14. Ian Bibby (GBr)
15. Zak Dempster (Aus)
16. Paul Voss (Ger)
Node4-Giordanan Racing
21. Marcin Bialoblocki (Pol)
22. Dave Clarke (GBr)
23. Matt Cronshaw (GBr)
24. Philip Lavery (Irl)
25. Mike Northey (NZl)
26. Pete Williams (GBr)
UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling
31 Jonny Clarke (Aus)
32. Robert Förster (Ger)
33. Christopher Jones (USA)
34. Marc de Maar (AHo)
35. Kai Reus (Ned)
36. Boy van Poppel
Euskaltel-Euskadi
41. Samuel Sánchez (Spa)
42. Victor Cabedo (Spa)
43. Pierre Cazaux (Fra)
44. Ricardo Garcia (Spa)
45. Adrian Saez de Arregui (Spa)
46. Pablo Urtasun (Spa)
Orica-GreenEdge
51. Jack Bobridge (Aus)
52. Sam Bewley (NZl)
53. Michael Hepburn (Aus)
54. Leigh Howard (Aus)
55. Aidis Kroupis (Ltu)
56. Sebastian Langeveld (Ned)
Liquigas-Cannondale
61. Ivan Basso (Ita)
62. Marco Beneffato (Ita)
63. Federico Canuti (Ita)
64. Damiano Caruso (Ita)
65. Matthias Krizok (Aut)
66. Paolo Longo Borghini (Ita)
Saur-Sojasun
71. Jimmy Engoulvent (Fra)
72. Jérémie Galland (Fra)
73. Jonathan Hivert (Fra)
74. Cyril Lemoine (Fra)
75. Jean-Marc Marino (Fra)
76. Rony Martias (Fra)
Vacansoleil-DCM
81. Martin Mortensen (Den)
82. Matteo Carrara (Ita)
83. Wesley Kreder (Ned)
84. Barry Markus (Ned)
85. Nikita Novikov (Rus)
86. Willem Wauters (Bel)
Team IG-Sigma Sport
91. Dan Craven (GBr)
92. Peter Hawkins (Irl)
93. Tom Last (GBr)
94. Dan Lloyd (GBr)
95. Simon Richardson (GBr)
96. Wouter Sybrandy (Ned)
Team NetApp
101. Jan Barta (Cze)
102. Cesare Benadetti (Ita)
103. Bartosz Huzarski (Pol)
104. Blaz Jarc (Slo)
105. Leopold König (Cze)
106. Daniel Schorn (Aut)
Rapha Condor
111. Kristian House (GBr)
112. Mike Cuming (GBr)
113. Ben Grenda (Aus)
114. Richard Handley (GBr)
115. Christopher Jennings (RSA)
116. Richard Lang (Aus)
AN Post-Sean Kelly
121. Gediminas Bagdonas (Ltu)
122. Sam Bennett (Irl)
123. Mark Christian (GBr)
124. Sean Downey (Irl)
125. Pieter Ghyllebert (Bel)
126. Ronan McLaughlin (Irl)
Team Raleigh-GAC
131. Graham Briggs (GBr)
132. Russell Hampton (GBr)
133. Liam holohan (GBr)
134. Evan Oliphant (GBr)
135. Jamie Sparling (Can)
136. Bernard Sulzberger (Aus)
Garmin-Sharp
141 Tyler Farrar (USA)
142. Nathan Haas (Aus)
143. Robbie Hunter (RSA)
144. Lachlan Morton (Aus)
145. Sep Vanmarcke (Bel)
146. Steel Vonhoff (Aus)
Team UK Youth
151. Yanto Barker (GBr)
152. Magnus Backstedt (Swe)
153. Niklas Gustavsson (Swe)
154. Chris Opie (GBr)
155. Christofer Stevenson (Swe)
156. David McGowan (GBr)