The Tour of Britain 2009

As some of you may or may not know, I am lucky enough to head up the marketing and PR for The Tour of Britain professional cycle race (yes, it is a full time job!). As such, I have been lucky enough to get up close with some of the world’s best at this year’s event that took place last week. A cracking event which saw some of the best racing to take place yet on British soil. Here are some of my pics from the event:

Bradley Wiggins being interviewed by the Scunthorpe Telegraph before the start of Stage 1

At the start of Stage 2:

Geoffroy Lequatre from Agritubel

Team Halfords Bikehut

Filippo Pozzato, Italian national champ riding for Team Katusha

Dan Lloyd - Cervelo Test Team

The UK's Team CandiTV - Marshalls Pasta with Malcolm Elliott and Russell Downing

In NewcastleGateshead

The Tour of Britain press office where I spent most of my time during The Tour

Then onto Scotland for the start of Stage 3

The view from the Hydro Hotel in Peebles, Scotland

One of Rabobank's many many vehicles on The Tour

The SRAM Neutral Support vehicle

Team Joker Bianchi

Team Vacansoleil

Little & Large from Team Katusha

Pozzato's Ridley - check the gold drop outs!

Mauricio Soler - former KOM Winner in the Tour de France

Ben Swift from Team Katusha

Nicolas Roche from AG2R

Edvald Boasson Hagen taking line honours on Stage 3

Stage 4 in Blackpool

Doing the typical tourist picture outside the AG2R mechanics truck

Geraint Thomas being interviewed

Ian Stannard from the ISD Neri Team

Team Joker Bianchi's racing machines

Podium Girl Becki showing off her gift from the CSF Navigare Team

The finish of stage 5 in Stoke on Trent

Some of the thousands of school kids waiting for the riders to come in at the end of Stage 5

Lauren and Becki - our podium girls

The end of Stage 6 in Bideford

Edvald Boasson Hagen's racing machine

Start of stage 7

Nicolas Roche's racing machine

Brice Feillu - stage winner in the 2009 TdF

Vladimir Karpets from Team Katusha

Kai Reus from Rabobank

Kim Kirchen

The final stage that took place in London. It must also be said that for the very first time ever in the history of London, Embankment was closed on a Saturday to a public event.

Riders lining up for the start of the final stage of The Tour of Britain

More of the riders

The Tour of Britain 2009

The different jersey leaders on the start line together

Stage 8 Combativity Award winner - Thomas De Gendt

2009 Tour of Britain Sprint Competition winner - Thomas De Gendt

2009 Tour of Britain King of the Mountain Competition winner - Thomas De Gendt

2009 Tour of Britain Champion - Edvald Boasson Hagen

De Gendt and Hagen

De Gendt and Hagen

If you’d like to see the full gallery which includes in race footage, head over to The Tour of Britain website for more.

I do have some videos from the event which I plan on getting up here within the next few days, especially now that things are a little bit quieter at work.

Bum ride for Barloworld

Team Barloworld at the presentation ceremony for this year's Tour

What a bum ride the Barloworld team have had in this year’s Tour. Last year the team made the Tour as a wild card entry and proved their worth with stage wins from Robert Hunter and Mauricio Soler. Soler also went on to win the overall King of the Mountains competition.

With a team poised for success in the year’s Tour, nothing could go wrong. Or so we thought. Soler crashed on the first stage and after a few kilometres into stage 5 pulled out of the event with a fractured wrist.

On stage 11, the team lost Colombian Felix Cardenas and Italian Paolo Longo on Wednesday’s 11th stage. Cardenas, a former stage winner in both the Tour and the tour of Spain, injured a tendon in his left leg. Longo fractured his a collarbonein a crash around the 50km mark of the same stage. To add to the team’s misfortune that day, Moises Duenas tested positive for banned substances (ie. blood booster EPO).

And just when things couldn’t get any worse, Australian Baden Cooke became the team’s fifth rider to leave the Tour. After crashing in the early parts of yesterday’s stage 12, Cooke decided enough was enough and pulled out the Tour.

The South Africa sponsored (but British-registered outfit) are now down to just four riders: Robert Hunter, John Lee Augustyn, Gianpaolo Chuela and Christopher Froome.

Let’s hope they can make the remaining nine stages (if you include today’s stage) as a foursome, and maybe pull a stage victory out of the bag too (no pressure at all on you Hunter)?