Route for the Aviva Tour of Britain revealed – will Barking Tye be twinned with Alpe d’Huez?
Cyclists in Barking Tye - on Suffolk's mountain stage of the Aviva Tour. - Credit: Fergus Muir
Full details of the Tour of Britain’s progress through Suffolk on Saturday, September 12 have been published – complete with two “mountain” stages at Brantham and Barking Tye near Stowmarket.
On that day the tour riders cycle from Fakenham in Norfolk to Ipswich town centre, taking about two and a half hours to travel from the Suffolk boundary on the A134 at Barnham to the county town.
The Suffolk leg is the seventh of eight days of racing, with the cyclists moving onto London for the grand finale the following day.
The tour finishes at the junction between Princes Street and Civic Drive outside the Willis building, and those roads will be closed throughout the day.
The Suffolk section includes “King of the Mountains” stages at Brantham Hill (altitude 33 metres) and Barking Tye (altitude 75 metres). The King of the Mountains stages in the Tour de France involve an ascent of 20,000 metres.
Tony Goldson, Suffolk County Council’s cabinet member for health, said: “I am extremely excited to be welcoming the Aviva Tour of Britain to the county.
“It’s not very often you get an international sporting event come speeding through your neighborhood.
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“We’re very fortunate in Suffolk to host both the Aviva Women’s Tour and the Aviva Tour of Britain.
“We are a county full of cycling enthusiasts and I’m confident our historic towns and scenic villages will provide the perfect backdrop to such a fantastic sporting event.
“We want everyone to be able to fully enjoy the race so it’s important that we make people aware of the temporary impact that this will have on our roads.”
The Women’s Tour attracted huge crowds when it raced through both Suffolk and Essex earlier in the summer and the men’s version is expected to create an even bigger stir.
It also provided a financial boost to the region, as well as creating a legacy for the sport in Suffolk.
Will you be out watching the Tour of Britain pass through Suffolk? Don’t forget to share your photos with us - we will be publishing a gallery of the best online and in print.
