Rod Ellingworth, the new race director of the Tour of Britain, is hoping to convince Olympic gold medalists Remco Evenepoel and Tom Pidcock to ride this year's race in early September.
The British stage race has been revived by British Cycling after the previous organisers declared bankruptcy and even struggled to pay costs and prize money from recent editions of the race. Lloyds Bank has provided significant sponsorship for the race and British Cycling, with the men’s and women’s editions of the Tour of Britain considered a key part of a wider cycling strategy in Britain.
Lotte Kopecky won the four-day edition of the women’s Tour of Britain in june. The men’s race will be over six stages between 3-8 September.
The men’s Tour of Britain traditionally offers an ideal route to the road race world championships, with previous winners including Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and Julian Alaphilippe.
Ellingworth hopes to see Evenepoel, Pidcock and others on the start line in Scotland, along with other big-name riders.
“We’d love to see Tom Pidcock against Remco Evenepoel at the Tour of Britain. It'd be cool to see two Olympic champions up against each other,” he told Cyclingnews.
“I think the route would suit Remco really well and it’d be great for British cycling fans to see Tom race on home roads after he won gold in the mountain bike race in Paris.”
Ellingworth is working for the Tour of Britain in a consultancy role after numerous years as a performance director and then team manager at Team Sky, Bahrain and Ineos Grenadiers.
He has visited several races and talked to teams to help rebuild the reputation of the Tour of Britain after the failures of previous organiser Sweetspot. Some teams have planned race schedules without the Tour of Britain but others are interested in returning to British roads. The Tour of Britain has still to reveal the team for this year’s race.
“I don’t have any confirmation on riders yet but we’ve been talking to teams. I saw that Remco’s team manager Patrick Lefevere indicated that the Tour of Britain could be his first ride back after the Olympics. He’d be very welcome,” Ellingworth said.
“Some of the teams have started to send in their entry list, so we can see who's coming, but there's no confirmation on anybody yet. A lot of riders have ridden the Tour of Britain in the past to prepare for the World Championships and I think this year’s hilly course world again.”
