Introducing the 2022 Tour of Britain 🇬🇧 host regions.
🔹 Return to North Yorkshire on stage four
🔹 First-ever Gloucestershire and Dorset stages
🔹 Stage starts in Aberdeen, Redcar and Ryde
🔹 Stage finish in Sunderland
🔹 Nottinghamshire hosts stage five#TourOfBritain 🔴🔵⚪
— Tour of Britain 🇬🇧 (@TourofBritain) February 10, 2022
Bear with me here, but the Tour of Britain organizers must feel like rock stars sometimes.
And no, I’m not talking about the swathes of adoring fans on the roadside, nor am I referring to drugs (though the race in its current form has been running since the mid-2000s, so I’m sure there were some knocking about back then…).
No, I’m talking about how when every rock band announces a tour, no matter how big it is, there’s always some wise guy popping up in the comments to ask, “why aren’t you playing my town?”
It seems the ToB now has the same problem.
This morning, the organizers announced the host regions for the 2022 race. Starting in Aberdeen on Sunday 4 September, the race will travel through Scotland, before taking in the north-east of England, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, first ever full stages in Gloucestershire and Dorset, and finishing a week later on the Isle of Wight.
A few fans, however, weren’t happy with the route and took to Twitter to express their disappointment. “Play Cardiff!!!,” I hear them cry.
The organizers, who seem to be acutely aware of the neediness of some British cycling fans, promptly slapped down these complaints with a pre-prepared FAQs page and some excellent, withering responses:
We’d suggest you read this guide explaining how the route is put
together. https://t.co/jfRoLTs9WN
— Tour of Britain 🇬🇧 (@TourofBritain) February 10, 2022
We’d suggest that you read this, Tim. We always get accusations of ignoring areas: given that our HQ is in the south east and our the majority of our staff live locally and regularly ride in the area shows that if we *could* host a stage there we *would*.https: //t.co/jfRoLTs9WN
— Tour of Britain 🇬🇧 (@TourofBritain) February 10, 2022
Could that be a premature sight, too? We’d suggest reading this. https://t.co/jfRoLTs9WN
— Tour of Britain 🇬🇧 (@TourofBritain) February 10, 2022
The race’s FAQs page, which outlines the financial and logistical factors that shape the Tour of Britain’s route, reads: “Hopefully, for many, many people, today’s announcement has whet the appetite for what promises to be eight unforgettable days of racing in September.
“We appreciate that our annual route reveal is an emotive day for cycling fans in the UK. Believe us when we say that we’re sorry for not visiting your hometown or the climb you’ve been riding up for years. However, this has nothing to do with us ignoring places: sadly it’s not possible to visit every part of Britain in just eight days.
“Putting together each year’s route is a logistically and strategically challenging task.
“Unfortunately we cannot cover every part of Britain during an eight-day bike race. It’s impossible and unfortunately the nature of the beast when it comes to organizing events. Take this year’s Tour de France route, for example: look how much of the country that doesn’t cover in 21 days of racing!
“Under the rules set by the UCI, the sport’s governing body, we cannot have any stage above 240 kilometers in length. Also, the maximum average daily distance permitted is 180 kilometers, so from starting out in Aberdeen city cente, we’d have to take the most direct route to get riders to the Isle of Wight within the rules. Even then, that would be a push!”
Nevertheless, cycling journalist and author Ed Pickering did make one suggestion that I’m sure the organizers will happily take on board:
Once again, the Falkland Islands have been snubbed. https://t.co/SuPQxUp8Mm
— Edward Pickering (@EdwardPickering) February 10, 2022