2007 Tour of Britain

The 2007 edition of the Tour of Britain stage race was run as a UCI 2.1 category in seven stages starting in London on 9 September and finishing in Glasgow on 15 September. The Tour was extended to seven days for 2007, with the extra day being used to run a stage in Somerset for the first time. Instead of finishing in London as in previous years, the 2007 race started in London and finished in Glasgow, which is using the event to boost its bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

French rider Romain Feillu won the overall race, Mark Cavendish won the Points competition and Ben Swift won the Mountains competition.

Stages

Prologue - 2007-09-09: London, 2.5 km

The tour started with a 2.5 km prologue time trial at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. The leader's yellow jersey was claimed by Britain's Mark Cavendish in a time of two minutes 27.6 seconds, ahead of two Russian riders. As a result, Cavendish was the first British rider to take yellow since the Tour of Britain resumed in 2004. [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/6986326.stm |title=Cavendish takes British Tour lead |work=BBC Sport |accessdate=September 11 | accessyear=2007|date=2007-09-09]

Prologue result [cite web | title= Prologue Stage Result
work= www.tourofbritain.com | url= http://www.tourofbritain.com/results_pages/stage_p_stage_result.asp | accessdate=September 11| accessyear=2007|date=2007-09-09 ] .

*Leader of the Points competition - Mark Cavendish
*Leader of the King of the Mountains competition - František Raboň

tage 2 - 2007-09-11: Yeovilton - Taunton, 169.2 km

The second road stage was mainly in Somerset and started at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton before travelling west through Taunton and Dunster. The first major climb of the tour was at Porlock Hill (using the private toll road), which is a First Category King of the Mountains climb. There followed a steep decent into Lynmouth before climbing to Watersmeet, a Second Category climb. The route then passed through Simonsbath and Exford before reaching the final climb at Wheddon Cross. The race finished in the centre of Taunton. [cite web | title= Stage 2: Yeovilton to Taunton | work= www.tourofbritain.com | url= http://www.tourofbritain.com/therace_stage_pages/therace_stage_2_route.asp | accessdate=September 11| accessyear=2007 ] .

Nikolai Trusov steered clear of a late crash to win the stage and take the yellow jersey from Mark Cavendish. Trusov was part of a 36-man break which made a decisive move after two-thirds of the gruelling 169.5 km leg. He kept pace with the leaders and hit the front after avoiding a four-man pile-up close to the finish in Taunton. Cavendish, the prologue and first stage winner, came home in 34th, more than 10 minutes behind Trusov. [cite web | title= Trusov grabs lead after victory
work= www.bbc.co.uk | url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/6989884.stm | accessdate=September 11| accessyear=2007|date=2007-09-11 ]

Stage 2 result [cite web | title= Stage 2 Stage Result
work= www.tourofbritain.com | url= http://www.tourofbritain.com/results_pages/stage_2_stage_result.asp | accessdate=September 11| accessyear=2007|date=2007-09-11 ]

General Classification after Stage 3 [cite web | title= STAGE 3 - General Classification
work= www.tourofbritain.com | url= http://www.tourofbritain.com/results_pages/stage_3_general_classification.asp | accessdate=September 12| accessyear=2007|date=2007-09-12 ]

*Leader of the Points competition - Romain Feillu
*Leader of the King of the Mountains competition - Ben Swift

tage 5 - 2007-09-14: Liverpool - Kendal, 170.1 km

Stage 5 travelled from the sea to the fells, as the race made its way from Liverpool to the Cumbrian town of Kendal, in the most picturesque stage of this year’s race, featuring three categorised climbs and the constantly rolling roads of the Forest of Bowland and the northern Pennines. After leaving Liverpool the stage headed along the coastline, passing the sand dunes and pine forests at Formby and on through Southport. The race then turned inland through Walton le Dale before beginning to climb, on its way up to the Second Category climb of Grizedale. After passing through the historic market town of Kirby Lonsdale, came the climbs of Old Town and Blease Hill in quick succession. Both of these are Second Category climbs, counting towards the King of the Mountains competition. From the summit of Blease Hill, it was just over 11 kilometres to the finish line in the Kendal at the top of the fearsome Beast Banks. [cite web |url=http://www.tourofbritain.com/therace_stage_pages/therace_stage_5_route.asp |title=Stage 5: Liverpool to Kendal|work=www.tourofbritain.com |accessdate=September 15 | accessyear=2007|date=2007-09-14]

Alexander Serov took the stage after proving too strong for Mark Cavendish in the final stages. Serov and Cavendish went clear after 72 km before Serov shook off the Briton in the final 16 km, finishing one minute 43 seconds ahead of Cavendish. Adrian Palomares remains one second ahead of fellow Spaniard David Blanco Rodriguez in the overall classification. [cite web | title= Cavendish bid is foiled by Serov
work= www.bbc.co.uk | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/6995597.stm| accessdate=September 15| accessyear=2007|date=2007-09-14 ]

Stage 5 result [cite web | title= Stage 5 Stage Result
work= www.tourofbritain.com | url= http://www.tourofbritain.com/results_pages/stage_5_stage_result.asp | accessdate=September 15| accessyear=2007|date=2007-09-14 ]

Final General Classification [cite web | title= STAGE 6 - General Classification
work= www.tourofbritain.com | url= http://www.tourofbritain.com/results_pages/stage_6_general_classification.asp | accessdate=September 16| accessyear=2007|date=2007-09-15 ]

*Points competition - Romain Feillu
*King of the Mountains competition - Ben Swift (GBR BAR)

References

External links

* [http://www.tourofbritain.co.uk Tour of Britain]