York 360° ~ Tour of Britain 2009, Stage 1: Scunthorpe to York

Saturday 12th September 2009
Tour of Britain Cycle Race 2009 visits York
The 2009 Tour of Britain will once again take place over eight days, beginning in North Lincolnshire on Saturday 12th September and finishing at the heart of London on Saturday 19th September.

Eight exciting stages will once again provide close and spectacular racing, ensuring that a worthy winner is crowned in London after the final day's action. A combination of familiar venues and regions, as well as new exciting additions will mark the route of this year's Tour of Britain, which will begin with a Grand Depart in Scunthorpe for the first stage, which finishes in York.

Subsequent stages will re-visit the North East as The Tour once again travels from Darlington to Newcastle Gateshead on Stage Two, while Stage Three will see the northern most point of the race, as The Tour heads to Scotland and takes in the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.

The Tour of Britain then heads south, with Stage Four featuring the North West of England and Blackpool, with Stage Five both starting and finishing in Stoke-on-Trent, with a hard days racing in store through the scenic North Staffordshire countryside.

The South West, scene of some of the races biggest crowds in 2008, has two stages in 2009, with Stage Six taking the riders across Exmoor as the pass from Somerset into Devon, on their journey from Frome to Bideford.

The penultimate day of the race then sees the peloton retrace its steps, from Hatherleigh in Devon to Yeovil in Somerset, on a stage that could decide the winner of this year's race.

A spectacular final day of racing will round out the 2009 Tour, as riders tackle the iconic London circuit that opened last year's race.

For the second year running there will be full coverage of the race on ITV, with viewers able to once again enjoy an hour long nightly highlights show of all the action on ITV4, between 7pm - 8pm, with repeats the following day, so if you can't make it out to your nearest stage, you won't miss out on any of the battle to win the 2009 Tour of Britain.

Come along and join in the celebrations as York hosts one of the country's biggest sporting events of the year! The first stage of the race starts in Scunthorpe at 10am and after a challenging 107 mile route the cyclists will head for a fast finish in York racing over the finish line at Heworth Stray, Malton Road, in York from 2pm.