GB Team Named for Tour of Britain
Story posted August 22, 2008
Event Website: www.tourofbritain.co.uk
The riders in Great Britain colours for the 2008 Tour of Britain have been selected. Headlining the team will be British Road Race Champion, Rob Hayles (Halfords Bikehut) who will line up in the race alongside his teammate, Tom Southam who has just won the Surrey League five day. Both riders have a great deal of experience between them and Rob has already competed in the Tour of Britain in 2005 and before that in 1999 when the national Tour race was known as the PruTour. In that event, he was victorious on a stage where he joined a break with Stuart O'Grady and Frenchman Pascal Lino after just 22 miles of the long stage.
Rob Hayles winning the Tour of Pendle alone this year, showing he has great form coming into the Tour of Britain in two weeks.
At the finish of that stage, Rob beat one of the sports major stars, Aussie Stuart O’Grady who rides in Europe now for Team CSC and who is on the provisional start sheet for Team CSC - Saxo Bank who will be coming to Britain with young GB academy rider Jonny Bellis as he prepares for the road worlds later in September.
Talking about the race, Rob Hayles told us he was very pleased to have been selected and happy to go for either the overall or stage victories. Asked to put his neck on the line and tell us which stages he feels may suit him, he explained that although there are some quite lumpy stages in the race, that the first (London) and last (Liverpool) stages may well suit him. The three time Olympic medallist is confident no-one will touch him in the sprints which is fighting talk from the rider nicknamed ‘killer’. After having seen him beat the country’s top sprinters on his day, he is sure to be entertaining when he does!
To prepare for the event, he and his teammate Tom Southam rode the Surrey League Five day last week which Southam won and that is it for Rob's racing programme until the Tour starts on the 7th of September. In the meantime, he’ll be tapering down his training and getting into the best possible shape for the first assault on the iconic stage in London along the river Thames (7th of September). Like Rob, Tom Southam is said to be also really pleased to be riding the big race saying a few weeks ago, it was either going to be that or a holiday!
Ben Swift (right) on the podium last year with winner Romain Feillu and Mark Cavendish (Sprints and Points).
Also selected for the Great Britain squad is the King of the Mountains for the 2007 race, Ben Swift, who rode so well in the Olympic road race in Beijing and has won major races in Italy this year as well as finishing 4th in the Under 23 European Road Race championship.
Not only can Ben climb but he can also sprint and may well provide the team with another sprint option and may well be battling with the likes of Mark Cavendish who’s part of the provisional line up for the Tour of Britain and the Columbia High Road team. The Tour of Britain is a key race for Ben Swift as he prepares for the World Under 23 road race championships and he said before the Olympics his key goal is to swap the mountains jersey he won last year for the Yellow one this year.
Ian Stannard who is based in Belgium will be riding for the GB team as well along with Andy Tennant who will be flying in from the European Track Championships in Poland with the sixth member of the team being Jonathon McEvoy. In last year's race, Paul Manning who won Gold in Beijing last week, won the final stage of the race and in years gone by, Roger Hammond has also won stages wearing the colours of his country.
Team manager for the riders in the race will be former professional Max Sciandri who works with Ben Swift, Andy Tennant and Jonathon McEvoy in Italy.
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