Tour of Britain's Devon stage unveiled

A year to go!

It's a year to go to the Tour of Britain, the professional cycle race, and it's coming back to Devon after what will have been a three-year gap. 
 
Devon will host stage two of the tour on Monday 6 September with a 185 kilometre (115 mile) route between Sherford and Exeter, the twelfth stage to have been hosted by Devon since 2008. It should be taking place this month, but coronavirus has put a stop to that.
 
A typically hilly Devon stage including 3,500 metres of ascent will visit the South Hams for the first time since 2012, ahead of testing climbs on Dartmoor, before a finish on Queen Street in Exeter city centre.
 
Councillor Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council Cabinet Member with responsibility for cycling, said: “We always try to make it a special occasion when The Tour of Britain comes to Devon and it’s great to hear that one of our local professional riders, Freddie Scheske, was inspired by watching one of the Devon stages on Dartmoor a few years ago – hopefully next year he will have the opportunity to compete in The Tour of Britain.”
 
The route will feature three intermediate sprints, the first of which will come at Torcross as the route crosses the road along the narrow shingle bar that separates Slapton Ley from the sea, with the remaining Sprints in Kingsbridge and Tavistock. Three ŠKODA King of the Mountains climbs will also feature, the first on the coast at Strete at the end of a two kilometre climb from Blackpool Sands
 
The second and third ŠKODA King of the Mountains climbs both come in the Dartmoor National Park, the first the 8.7 kilometre climb of Rundlestone above Tavistock, which has been used by the Tour of Britain twice before (2010 and 2012).  The final categorised climb will be between Postbridge and the famous Warren House Inn, one of the most famous locations on Dartmoor and at 434m (1,425ft) above sea level the highest inn in southern England, where the pub’s fire has famously been burning since 1845.
 
It will be the eleventh year that Devon has featured in the Tour of Britain, with more than 1.7 million people having lined the routes in Devon to watch the stages, generating over £41 million in net economic impact for the local economy.
 
“We are delighted to be continuing our relationship with Devon County Council and being back here with the Tour of Britain in September 2021,” said Hugh Roberts, Managing Director of organisers SweetSpot. As always the Devon stage looks set to be an incredibly tough challenge. Coming the day after our first visit to Cornwall what better for cycling fans to look forward to than the opportunity to watch two days of tough racing in the beautiful south west of England.”
 
Present at the event on the quayside in Exeter were Devon based professional cyclists were Natasha Reddy (Bianchi Dama) and Freddie Scheske (Vitus Pro Cycling p/b Brother UK), who are both studying at Exeter University.
 
“It’s the biggest race in Britain and would be a dream come true to race in it,” said Freddie Scheske.  “If I could ride the 2021 Tour of Britain it would be the biggest cycling achievement of my life, the run in goes past my university halls, so I know that road very well. It’s very inspirational and very motivational for me to keep training knowing that there will be a race here and I could be riding it.”
 
“I looked at the profile and thought not too bad, but it’s going to be absolutely savage and relentless.  There’s no flat to recover or freewheel on, you’re either going up full gas or you’re trying to make up gaps on the descent, so you never get into a rhythm.”
 
Speaking about having the Tour of Britain come to Devon and Exeter, Bianchi Dama’s Natasha Reddy said; “I know the route coming back into Exeter like the back of my hands.  The route is my training roads and one of my favourite bits of Devon to ride, so I’ll definitely be riding round on the day trying to watch in as many places as I can! From Tavistock back to Exeter it will be fast, it’s usually a tailwind across the moor but then there are some short, sharp climbs at Doccombe and Dunsford and they’re not to be overlooked.”

The 2021 Tour of Britain is due to take place between Sunday 5 and Sunday 13 September 2021, starting from Penzance in Cornwall and finishing in the city of Aberdeen.  Full details of the 2021 Tour of Britain race route will be announced later in the year while detailed timings for the Devon stage will be announced in the spring of 2021.
 

Watch Radio Exe's video of the 2018 Devon stage getting underway here.