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5 standout Tour of Britain moments from the last ten years
The 2024 Tour of Britain will run from Tuesday 3rd September to Sunday 8th September, taking in the sights of the Scottish Borders, heading down to Sheffield and finishing in Felixstowe.
The race has had plenty of memorable moments over the years with some brilliant riders winning stages, classifications and launching themselves on lengthy breakaways. We look back at the past decade to relive some of the best moments.
2014: Marcel Kittel shines on debut
Arriving at the 2014 Tour of Britain having won four stages at the Tour de France, Marcel Kittel bookended the race with wins in Liverpool and London. On the opening day he powered away in the sprint finish with rival Mark Cavendish in third, who had crashed into a car earlier in the race.
The final day was a rarely seen split stage; an 8.8km individual time-trial preceded an 88.8km ride around a London circuit. After Bradley Wiggins topped the ITT standings, Kittel would win by mere inches ahead of Cavendish.
2016: A classic Ian Stannard breakaway
The year is 2016 and Ian Stannard was at the Tour of Britain after helping Chris Froome to another Tour de France victory. At the start of Stage 3, a 179.4km day from Congleton to Tatton Park, his teammates Ben Swift and Nicolas Roche were in the top ten on GC. Stannard worked his way into the day’s breakaway, sticking out like a sore thumb alongside the Continental riders that normally make up the Tour of Britain’s breaks.
It was in the final 41km that he launched a scathing solo attack and dropped them all. He stayed away until the finish, celebrating in front of hundreds of cheering fans in Cheshire. This was also another edition of the Tour of Britain that featured a split stage – stages 7a and 7b on the penultimate day. But 2016 was difference, as for the first time in a decade, there was no repeat stage winner.
2019: Mathieu van der Poel dominates
2019 was a season in which Mathieu van der Poel truly announced himself on the road stage with Corendon-Circus, bolstered by wins at Dwars door Vlaanderen, Brabantse Pijl and the Amstel Gold Race. At the Tour of Britain he came close to victory on Stage 3, narrowly beaten by Jumbo-Visma’s Dylan Groenewegen. But he wouldn’t make that mistake again.
On Stage 4, as the three-man breakaway were caught in the last kilometre Van der Poel launched a stinging attack from the back of the main group to win the uphill sprint in Kendal after a tough day.
After losing the lead to Matteo Trentin on Stage five on bonus seconds, he rectified the situation the next day before going back-to-back on the last two stages of the race. It was an almighty battle between leader Van der Poel and second place Trentin on a hilly Stage 7, but the Dutchman outclimbed the Italian to Burton Dassett – Trentin holding his hand up in defeat – for ten bonus seconds.
In the final kilometres of Stage 8, Mitchelton-Scott swarmed on the front but Van der Poel was right behind. It was a tight finish between Van der Poel, Trentin and Cees Bol of Sunweb, but Van der Poel narrowly edged them both out for his third stage victory and the overall win by 17secs ahead of Trentin.
2021: Jacob Scott’s breakaway brilliance
The Continental teams don’t just ride in breakaways for the hell of it. The Tour of Britain’s parcours means winning classifications is a real possibility. In the past decade, 12 riders from British and Irish-based Continental teams have won a points, sprints or mountains classification. One of the most successful was Jacob Scott.
In 2021, Canyon-Dhb-SunGod’s Scott secured both the mountains and sprints classifications as well as the overall combativity award for his efforts across the eight-stage race.
He topped the sprints and mountains standings (the latter he previously won in 2019) after making the breakaway on the opening stage and never relented, continuing to make breakaways and sweep up points. It was unsurprising that he took home the overall combativity award too.
Scott dominated and by the end of the race, won the mountains jersey by 34 points and the sprints jersey by 12.
2023: Jumbo-Visma run wild
Over half of last year’s stages at the Tour of Britain were won by a member of Jumbo-Visma. It was a memorable opening day in Manchester as 21-year-old Olav Kooij led home a 1-2 for the squad with teammate Van Aert finishing second just behind.
Kooij impressed and then some. He won a further three stages on the bounce and topped the standings throughout his four-day tirade, only relinquishing the lead after Stage 5, which was won by Van Aert, who took the leader’s jersey.
Van Aert went on to win the Tour of Britain for a second time, beating Uno-X’s Tobias Halland Johannessen by 3secs.
What could’ve been…
2022 was shaping up to be a close edition of the Tour of Britain. After Stage 5, Movistar’s Gonzalo Serrano led the standings by just 3secs from Tom Pidcock. The top five on GC all sat within 10secs of one another.
Despite the race being scheduled to head south and finish on the Isle of Wight, the final three stages were ultimately cancelled due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Pidcock will be back on the start line this year though, alongside strong challenges from Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe.
For more on the race, including the route, how to watch and the favourites, visit our Tour of Britain hub page.
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