Altrincham is to host the start of the final stage of this year’s Tour of Britain cycle race.
The 2019 OVO Energy Tour of Britain, which takes place from Saturday September 7th to Saturday September 14th, is Britain’s biggest professional bike race and part of the UCI Europe Tour.
The eight-day race will take the world’s top teams and riders across a 1,250-kilometre route.
The final stage on Saturday September 14th, which will finish in Manchester city centre for the first time since the inaugural edition of the modern race in 2004, will see the peloton tackling a 165-km route, starting in Altrincham and including almost 2,000 metres of climbing.
It will pass through all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester before finishing on Deansgate in the city centre.
The exact route is to be confirmed, but a map released by the organisers this morning shows that riders will head south from the town centre to Knutsford and then east and anti-clockwise to Wilmslow, Bramhall, Stockport, Marple, Hyde, Stalybridge, Mossley, Rochdale, Ramsbottom, north of Bolton and then east into the city centre from Westhoughton.
Here’s a map of the route released today:
🎴 @OVOEnergy Tour of Britain 🇬🇧 stage eight reveal 🎴
🚩 Altrincham
🏁 Deansgate, Manchester
🗓 Saturday 14 September
📏 165km
📋 Passes through all 10 Greater Manchester boroughs – our first stage finish in the city since 2004!📰 https://t.co/C9N5dqyjos#OVOToB pic.twitter.com/ZDgeCTO6S6
— Tour of Britain 🇬🇧 (@TourofBritain) May 29, 2019
The news is a major coup for Altrincham – the first time the town has ever been a host venue for the event – and is sure to attract thousands of spectators to the town and hand it a significant economic boost.
Altrincham Unlimited will be working on the plans for the event in conjunction with Trafford Council.
It all means that Altrincham will be back in the national spotlight having been recently selected as the trial town for the National High Street Perfect Day initiative, while last year the town was named England’s best high street.
