The **Tour of Britain** is the name of a cycle race held in United Kingdom. The race is made up of several parts in which the racers go from place to place across parts of Great Britain. The history of the event dates back to 1951. The Tour of Britain is part of the UCI's European Tour.

The race includes teams from Scotland and Wales, as well as a Great Britain team. In recent years, no English team has been entered. Teams from outside the UK compete too, for example in 2007 Team T-Mobile will take part.

The latest version, a professional stage race, was first run in 2004.

History
-------

The Tour of Britain has had different names. This is because many different companies or groups of people have provided the money needed to have the event happen (*sponsors*).

* the ***Daily Express* Tour of Britain** (1951-1955)

Scot Ian Steel won the 1951 edition, in which Jimmy Savile (later to become a famous DJ and television personality and child molester) also raced. The 1955 edition was organised by the British League of Racing Cyclists.
* the **Milk Race** (1958-1993)

This was a two-week amateur event but from about 1983, the event was also opened to professional teams. The Milk Marketing Board also sponsored the **Scottish Milk Race**, a smaller tour in Scotland.
* the **Kellogg's Tour** (1987-1994)

Winners included: Malcolm Elliot (1988), Robert Millar (1989), Phil Anderson (1991, 1993), Max Sciandri (1992) and, in its final year, Maurizio Fondriest.
* the Prudential plc-sponsored **PruTour** (1998-1999)

Stuart O'Grady (Crédit Agricole) won the 1998 edition; Marc Wauters (Rabobank) won in 1999.

The modern tour
---------------

Stage 3 of the 2005 race passing through Honley, near Huddersfield
### 2004 Tour of Britain

The first edition of the latest version of the **Tour of Britain** took place over five days in early September 2004. It was organised by SweetSpot along with British Cycling. The race was sponsored by the organisers of London's 2012 Olympics bid. It was well-promoted and many well-known teams were a part of the race. Such teams included T-Mobile (Germany) and U.S. Postal Service (USA). This was partly due to it being a 2.3 category race on the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) calendar.

The 2004 route ended with a 45 mile (72 km) criterium in London, where tens of thousands of people watching saw a long break by Londoner Bradley Wiggins last until the final lap. Enrico Degano of Team Barloworld passed him on the final lap to win that stage of the race. The Colombian Mauricio Ardila, of Chocolade Jacques, won the Tour overall.

#### Stages

| Stage | Date | Start | Finish | Distance | Winner | Team | Time |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 1 September 2004 | Manchester | Manchester | 207 km | Stefano Zanini |  Italy | QSD | 5h 01'23" |
| 2 | 2 September 2004 | Leeds | Sheffield | 172 km | Mauricio Ardila |  Colombia | CHO | 4h 26'26" |
| 3 | 3 September 2004 | Bakewell | Nottingham | 192 km | Tom Boonen |  Belgium | QSD | 4h 30'55" |
| 4 | 4 September 2004 | Newport | Newport | 160 km | Mauricio Ardila |  Colombia | CHO | 3h 32'37" |
| 5 | 5 September 2004 | London | London | 72 km | Enrico Degano |  Italy | TBL | 1h 27'30" |

#### Final General Classification

|  | Name | Nationality | Team | Time |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Mauricio Ardila |  Colombia | CHO | 18h 58'36" |
| 2 | Julian Dean |  New Zealand | C.A | + 00'12" |
| 3 | Nick Nuyens |  Belgium | QSD | + 00'17" |

### 2005 Tour of Britain

See the main article: Tour of Britain 2005
The 2005 race was run as a UCI 2.1 category in six stages starting in Glasgow on 30 August and finishing in London on 4 September:

#### Stages

| Stage | Date | Start | Finish | Distance | Winner | Team | Time |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 30 August 2005 | Glasgow | Castle Douglas | 185 km | Nick Nuyens |  Belgium | QSI | 4h 24'32" |
| 2 | 31 August 2005 | Carlisle | Blackpool | 160 km | Roger Hammond |  United Kingdom | GBR | 3h 58'48" |
| 3 | 1 September 2005 | Leeds | Sheffield | 160 km | Luca Paolini |  Italy | QSI | 4h 27'24" |
| 4 | 2 September 2005 | Buxton | Nottingham | 195 km | Serguei Ivanov |  Russia | TMO | 4h 24'17" |
| 5 | 3 September 2005 | Birmingham | Birmingham | (ITT) 4 km | Nick Nuyens |  Belgium | QSI | 4'54.06" |
| 6 | 4 September 2005 | London | London | 60 km | Luca Paolini |  Italy | QSI | 1h 30'54" |

#### Final General Classification

|  | Name | Nationality | Team | Time |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Nick Nuyens |  Belgium | QSI | 19h 04'32" |
| 2 | Michael Blaudzun |  Denmark | CSC | + 00'08" |
| 3 | Javier Cherro Molina |  Spain | ECV | + 00'22" |

### 2006 Tour of Britain

The Tour of Britain 2006 took place from the 29 August to 3 September as a UCI category 2.1 event. Martin Pedersen and Andy Schleck of Team CSC won the overall and King of the Mountains classification, respectively. Mark Cavendish (T-Mobile Team) won the points classification and Johan Van Summeren (Davitamon-Lotto) captured the sprints classification.

#### Stages

| Stage | Date | Start | Finish | Distance | Winner | Team | Time |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 29 August 2006 | Glasgow | Castle Douglas | 162.6 km | Martin Pedersen |  Denmark | CSC | 4h 03'38" |
| 2 | 30 August 2006 | Blackpool | Liverpool | 163 km | Roger Hammond |  United Kingdom | GBR | 3h 54'15" |
| 3 | 31 August 2006 | Bradford | Sheffield | 180 km | Filippo Pozzato |  Italy | QSI | 4h 28'18" |
| 4 | 1 September 2006 | Wolverhampton | Birmingham | 130.3 km | Frederik Willems |  Belgium | JAC | 2h 54'12" |
| 5 | 2 September 2006 | Rochester | Canterbury | 152.6 km | Francesco Chicchi |  Italy | QSI | 4h 24'42" |
| 6 | 3 September 2006 | Greenwich | The Mall | 82 km | Tom Boonen |  Belgium | QSI | 2h 00'41" |

#### Final General Classification

|  | Name | Nationality | Team | Time |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Martin Pedersen |  Denmark | CSC | 21h 51'24" |
| 2 | Luis Pasamontes |  Spain | UNI | + 00'51" |
| 3 | Filippo Pozzato |  Italy | QSI | + 02'11" |

### 2007 Tour of Britain

The 2007 edition of the Tour of Britain stage race was run as a UCI 2.1 category in seven stages starting in London on 9 September and finishing in Glasgow on 15 September. The Tour was extended to seven days for 2007, with the extra day being used to run a stage in Somerset for the first time. Instead of finishing in London as in previous years, the 2007 race started in London and finished in Glasgow, which is using the event to boost its bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Other websites
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* Tour of Britain official site