Tour of Britain

The Tour de France was a huge success this July when it brought out around 2 million people onto the streets of London to watch its Prologue and 1st Stage, so it’ll be interesting to see the numbers who turn out for the Prologue stage of the 2007 Tour of Britain which takes place at Crystal Palace on Sunday 9 September.

Crystal Palace certainly doesn’t have the glamour of riding around central London and the Tour of Britain is definitely a small event compared to the French equivalent, 950km in total with only the Prologue and six main stages and finishing in Glasgow on 15 September. Sunday’s Prologue will be not be on the road but will cover 2.5km of Crystal Palace’s former motor racing circuit. The following day’s 1st Stage will not start in London but at the Palmer Park Velodrome in Reading before heading for Southampton.

The race will feature 17 teams of 6 riders each and four of those teams, Agritubel, Team CSC, T-Mobile and Barloworld took part in this year’s Tour de France. The Prologue starts at 3pm with each rider going off at one minute intervals but the day’s activities at Crystal Palace start at 9.30am with a number of youth, womens and other races until the main event begins.

Crystal Palace Park is about five miles south of central London with the nearest train stations Crystal Palace, Penge West and Sydenham. Map