Shaw To Tour Of Britain

Sunday will see British shores host that of the Tour of Britain, an eight day (5-12 September) race from Penzance, all the way north to Aberdeen, within which there is Nottingham interest, Ribble Weldtite ride, James Shaw.

Over a hundred riders will take part in this years’ tour, covering over 1300km, and with stars like Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Mark Cavendish and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step), and the Ineos Grenadiers contingent which includes Richie Porte, Ethan Hayter and Michal Kwiatkowski, alongside a number of Brits, it’s going to make for interesting competition.

The task for British riders to succeed on home turf having been made harder in that there has only been two home victors of the modern tour (since 2004), Sir Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) in 2013, and Steve Cummings (Team Dimension Data) in 2016; it having been upgraded to eight stages in 2008.

Now the, as far Nottingham is concerned at least, focus is on James Shaw and his possibly capitalising on his recent successes, back-to-back fifth-place finishes in the Tour of Slovenia and Tour of Norway.

He’s been there and done it before though has Shaw, gone up against professional top echelon riders, so he won’t be fazed come Sunday’s start, in fact, eyes are already beginning to turn to the future as well, as Shaw posted on his Instagram recently….

“If all goes to plan I’ll be starting my 5^th @tourofbritain on Sunday 5^th September in Cornwall with the @ribble_weldtite lads. I think it’s fair to say this year we’ve punched a bit above our weight and we’re not planning on stopping now. All guns blazing for this year’s Penzance to Aberdeen route over 8 stages.

“Just on a side note I sadly will not be extending my contract with Ribble Weldtite into 2022. Yes I will still be racing as an opportunity to race in cycling’s top tier of the sport has arisen and I have decided to grab the chance with both hand. It goes without saying I want to do our jersey proud in Ribble Weldtite’s first edition of our home race. More information to follow shortly but in the meantime we have a lap of the U.K. to do battle with.”

That lap of Britain will see Shaw, alongside his fellow Ribble Weldtite riders Dan Bingham (Newcastle-under-Lyme), Matt Gibson (Lymm), Gruff Lewis (Aberystwyth), Charles Page (Amersham), and Simon Wilson (London), start, on Stage One, with Penzance to Bodmin on Sunday 5 September, covering some 180.8km in what is Cornwall’s race debut.

The following day the peloton heads to nearby Sherford and will cover a further 183.9km to Exeter; those two days in the South East will be followed up with two days in Wales, Llandello to the National Botanic Garden of Wales is an 18.2km team time trial on Tuesday 7 September and Aberaeron to Great Orme, Llandudno (queen’s stage, and mountain stage one), for 210km, a day later.

Now at the half-way stage, the North-West sees action on Thursday 9 September as riders take on the 152.2km ride between Alderley Park and Warrington before moving further north, and traversing Carlisle to Gateshead (mountain stage two), over some 198km, ahead of the double date in Scotland to finish.

Saturday 11 September is the 194.8km ride between Hawick and Edinburgh prior to finishing, a week after they begun, with the 174km round trip between Stonehaven and the Aberdeen finale, on Sunday 12 September, where the successor to 2019 victor, Netherlands’ Mathieu van der Pouel (Corendon-Circus) will be crowned.

As for Shaw, his going up against top-tier teams like Deceuninck-Quick Step, Ineos Grenadiers, Jumbo-Visma, Israel Start-Up Nation, and Movistar, will certainly stand him in good stead moving forward, and afford the 25-year-old an idea as to where his abilities are presently at.

Those two, recent, fifth-place GC finishes, in Slovenia (June) and Norway (August) will go a long way towards that.