ITV4 and British Eurosport will broadcast daily coverage of the 2013 Tour of Britain – the nation’s biggest professional cycle race.
Two of the sport’s biggest and most popular names in 2012 Tour de France winner Sir Bradley Wiggins and 25-time Tour stage winner Mark Cavendish will be taking part in this year’s race which spans the whole the UK mainland.
‘Wiggo’, who has endured a frustrating season thus far, took an impressive time trial win in the Tour of Poland in August after missing out on defending his Tour de France title earlier this summer due to injury.
Despite missing out on the Giro and the Tour this year, Wiggins has set his sights on winning his maiden Tour of Britain gold jersey as well as time trial gold at the UCI World Road Championships, which follows the week after in Italy.
Cavendish sprinted to glory on three of the eight stages last year but still finished runner-up to Boy Van-Poppel in the point’s classification.
The ‘Manx Missile’ won the blue jersey back in 2007, his first professional points classification victory.
This year’s tenth annual Tour of Britain is set to feature its biggest ever field, with 114 riders from 19 teams competing.
Alongside the two main Brits, also confirmed to ride is Movistar’s Nairo Quintana, who claimed the King of the Mountains and Young Riders jerseys at this year’s Tour de France.
Movistar’s squad also includes British time-trial champion Alex Dowsett, who will looking to add to his individual time trial victory back here in 2011.
Other big names include Dan Martin, who has been in fine form this season, pedalling his way to a Tour de France stage victory and winning the Liege-Bastogne-Liege back in April.
Milan-San-Remo winner Gerald Ciolek and two-time Giro d’Italia stage winner Giovanni Visconti have also been announced to race.
The 2013 edition of the Tour of Britain – the 10th in its current guise – will start in the Scottish Borders and visit the Lake District, Snowdonia and Devon before the finish in London, with 10 circuits around the capital before finishing on Whitehall.
In last year’s race, British rider Jonathan Tiernan-Locke found form for the Endura Racing team and took the gold jersey, beating Nathan Haas of Australia by 18 seconds.
With Tiernan-Locke not on the start list and Haas playing a support role for Martin in this year’s race, it looks increasingly likely we will have a new winner here this time round.
Following another successful Tour de France for British riders, the UK’s more compact version is expected to attract further media interest as well increased crowds along the roadside.
ITV4 will broadcast daily free-to-air coverage of the 2013 Tour of Britain, continuing its association with the race stretching back to 2008.
Following the channel’s extensive coverage of this year’s Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana, ITV4 will screen live coverage of seven of the eight stages, plus nightly one-hour highlights of each stage.
Ned Boulting presents the action alongside pundit Matt Stephens, while commentary comes from Hugh Porter and Brian Smith.
Due to a prior commitment to screen live British Touring Car Championship coverage on September 15 at Rockingham, ITV4’s live action from the Tour of Britain begins on Monday, September 16, with the 186km stage from Carlisle to Kendal.
From then, at least two hours of live coverage will be shown each day from Monday to Sunday’s finale in the capital.
ITV4’s coverage can be seen online for free via ITV.com, plus ITV Sport’s dedicated Tour of Britain website has all the latest news, race updates, standings and video from the race.
British Eurosport will screen coverage of the event for the first time in 2013.
The pan-European channel is the only place to watch each and every stage live as its coverage begins on September 15 with the opening stage in Scotland.
Declan Quigley and Magnus Backstedt will provide commentary.
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Sunday 15th September
STAGE 1: Peebles > Drumlanrig Castle – 209.9km / Flat Stage
LIVE: 2.00pm-4.00pm British Eurosport 2
Highlights: 9.00pm-10.00pm ITV4
Monday 16th September
STAGE 2: Carlisle > Kendal – 186.6km / Med-Mountain Stage
LIVE: 1.30pm-4.00pm ITV4 / British Eurosport
Highlights: 7.00pm-8.00pm ITV4
Tuesday 17th September
STAGE 3: Knowsley – 16km / Individual Time Trial
LIVE: 12.30pm-2.30pm ITV4 / British Eurosport
Highlights 7.00pm-8.00pm ITV4
Wednesday 18th September
STAGE 4: Stoke-on-Trent > Llanberis – 188.4km / Hilly Stage
LIVE: 2.00pm-4.00pm ITV4 / British Eurosport
Highlights: 7.00pm-8.00pm ITV4
Thursday 19th September
STAGE 5: Machynlleth > Caerphilly – 177.1km / Med-Mountain Stage
LIVE: 2.00pm-4.00pm ITV4 / British Eurosport
Highlights: 10.30pm-11.30pm ITV4
Friday 20th September
STAGE 6: Sidmouth > Haytor – 137km / Med-Mountain Stage
LIVE: 1.00pm-3.00pm ITV4 / British Eurosport
Highlights: 7.00pm-8.00pm ITV4
Saturday 21st September
STAGE 7: Epsom > Guildford – 155km / Hilly Stage
LIVE: 2.00pm-4.00pm ITV4 / British Eurosport
Highlights: 7.00pm-8.00pm ITV4
Sunday 22nd September
STAGE 8: London – 88km / Flat Stage
LIVE: 4.00pm-6.00pm ITV4 / British Eurosport
Highlights: 9.00pm-10.00pm ITV4
