Cycling: Tour of Britain riders unveiled

Aug 29 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

Team CSC’s Fabian Cancellara heads the list of Tour de France stage winners who will be competing at this year’s Tour of Britain.

Robbie Hunter, winner of Stage 11 of this year’s race and Linus Gerdemann, who won Stage 7 will be joined by Italian Salvatore Commesso on the Prologue start line at Crystal Palace on Sunday, September 9. The race visits Liverpool on September 14.

Hunter became the first African rider to win a stage of the Tour de France, as he took victory in Montpellier. He also went on to finish 2nd in the Green Jersey competition behind former Tour of Britain stage winner Tom Boonen.

Former Italian champion Salvatore Commesso has won two stages of the Tour de France, not to mention stages and classifications in many other races.

Commesso leads a strong Tinkoff Credit Systems team containing Mikhail Ignatiev and Evegni Petrov, 7th in this year’s Tour of Italy.

Last year’s Overall Tour of Britain winner Martin Pedersen will return to defend his Yellow Jersey. No rider has yet successfully defended The Tour of Britain title and we’ll have to wait until Glasgow on Saturday, September 15m to see whether Pedersen can do so.

Pedersen will don the number one at the head of a CSC squad that includes Argentinean sprinter Juan Jose Haedo, Lars Bak, Anders Lund and Luke Roberts.

The Great Britain team of Ben Swift, John Bellis, Steven Burke, Russell Hampton and Ed Clancy will be led by Paul Manning, riding his fourth Tour of Britain.

Stage winner from Team Great Britain last year, Roger Hammond, will be riding The Tour of Britain again, alongside exciting sprinter Mark Cavendish on the T-Mobile Team. Young British rider Ian Stannard, Frantisek Rabon and Adam Hansen complete the German squads line-up.

Recycling.co.uk bring a young all British line-up led by Olympic and World Champion Chris Newton. Simon Holt, 19, joins Rob Partridge, who has the experience of riding the previous three Tour’s of Britain.

Four-time New Zealand Champion Gordon McCauley will be riding his first Tour of Britain, as the Plowman Craven – Evans Cycles team make their debut in the race. McCauley was recently called up to the New Zealand squad for the World Road Race Championships in September, and is in good form after taking victory in The Tour of Pendle recently. Among his team mates is James McCallum, the National Criterium Champion, and Tony Gibb, winner of the Blackpool Grand Prix in July.

Scottish champion Evan Oliphant will be riding on the same DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed team as Dan Lloyd, fresh from second place in the British National Championships.

The Navigators Insurance Cycling Team have a strong home influence too, bringing Kristian House who has represented Great Britain on both the rode and track. He can be found riding alongside Irish National Champion David O’Loughlin and Irish Criterium Champion Ciaran Power, both familiar names at The Tour of Britain. Australian sprinter Hilton Clarke, Ben Brooks and Bert de Backer round

One rider in good form heading into The Tour of Britain is Martin Garrido of the Duja – Tavira team. The Argentinean won the Prologue of The Tour of Portugal earlier this month and wore the leader’s jersey for three stages.

Iljo Keisse is another familiar face to Tour of Britain spectators, having ridden the race twice before, finishing sixth last year. This year he’ll be leading the Chocolade Jacques – Topsport Vlaanderen team that also includes the King of the Mountains from the 2007 Tour Down Under, Serge Pauwels, Steven Caethoven and Pieter Ghyllebert.

French squad Agritubel, making their debut in the race bring a strong line up, led by up and coming sprinter Romain Feillu. The young Frenchman was a regular top ten in the bunch sprints of the first week of the Tour de France, and he’s sure to make an impact of the British roads.

Skil-Shimano return for their second Tour of Britain, and Aart Vierhouten will be hoping to go one place better than his second on Stage Two into Liverpool last year. Promising youngsters like Clement Lhotellerie and Floris Goesinnen will be there to support him.

Finally as well as stars of today, amongst the preliminary startlist for The Tour of Britain are some of the stars of tomorrow, particularly on the Rabobank squad. Boy Van Poppel is the son of former Tour de France Green Jersey Jean-Paul Van Poppel, while Martijn Maaskant has been one of the top riders on the UCI Europe Tour this season.

The other team riding who will be packed with names to watch in future years is the SouthAustralia.com - AIS team. They’ll be bringing Australian Under-23 champion Wes Sulzberger to head their challenge.