Tour of Britain: Staging elite cycling in the UK ‘definitely’ harder than ever

The Tour de France attracts a huge global audience in July each year, and can compete with many of the top sporting events around the world.

Considering British cyclists are winning their fair share of the top races, such as Pidcock in last year’s Tour on the legendary Alpe d’Huez climb, it can be easy to believe British racing is in great health.

Below that level, however, there are many teams who rely on races such as the Tour of Britain – some of whom are blazing the trail for change in a sport that, in some areas at least, badly needs it.

Saint Piran – a Cornish ‘continental’ level team – run programmes on rider mental health and sustainability, the latter being something of a grey area in a sport in which very few carbon footprints are declared.

The Tour of Britain is critical to the survival of teams on smaller budgets – one of which, AT85, folded in the middle of the 2023 season.

“It’s very important to make sure the club scene is very healthy,” says Saint Piran team boss Ricci Pascoe.

“At World Tour level we’re doing great, because Olympic medallists are coming out of World Tour teams. But we’re being squeezed at the ‘conti’ level and that’s the problem really.

“It’s kind of the development level. If you’ve got a late developer we’ll pick them up, and we’ll probably put back two or three riders into the World Tour.”