STAGE 1 SUNDAY 3 SEPTEMBER
ALTRINCHAM > MANCHESTER ▪ 163.6KM ▪ HILLY ▪ ELEVATION 1,973M
Nineteen years ago, Manchester hosted the first ever stage of the modern Tour of Britain, organised five years after the preceding Milk Race had been discontinued. Back then it was a minor affair, consisting of only five stages and held in a nation that was at the time still very much on the fringes of road cycling. Now, the Tour of Britain returns to where it all began for another Grand Départ, and you only have to look at the depth of British talent and the calibre of the race to see how far both the race and British cycling has come since then.
While that stage ended in a mass bunch sprint won by Stefano Zanini, the 2019 edition may provide a better pointer as to what might happen in today’s stage.
The route that day was almost identical to today’s, also starting in Altrincham and travelling to Manchester in an anti-clockwise direction, taking in the surrounding area’s undulating terrain, including the category-two climb of Grains Bar (2.4km at 5.8%) and category-one Ramsbottom Rake (1.3km at 8.8%). Those climbs might not sound like much on paper, but together with a number of unclassified rises, were enough to significantly reduce the peloton to just a few dozen riders after Ineos Grenadiers applied the pressure.
The race did eventually culminate in a reduced bunch sprint won by Mathieu van der Poel, but not before we were entertained by a relentless flurry of attacks as teams struggled for
