While the WorldTour riders of the Tour of Britain – Sir Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and Marcel Kittel to name three – may dominate the headlines, the race also represents an opportunity for the rising stars of the sport to make their name.

British Cycling has entered a Great Britain team of under-23s into the race for the third successive year, with a young squad of up-and-coming riders made up of Tao Geoghegan Hart, Germain Burton, Chris Latham, Chris Lawless, Dan McLay and Dan Pearson.

Geoghegan Hart leads the teams having finished tenth overall at last month’s Tour de l’Avenir, the prestigious under-23 stage race, while sprinter McLay secured a stage win in the same race, where previous champions include the 2014 Giro Italia winner, Nairo Quintana.

The Great Britain team put on a superb show at the 2013 Tour of Britain, with Simon Yates winning stage six and finishing third overall, and Geoghegan Hart lies 17th overall, one minute and three seconds behind race leader Michał Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) after five stages, in what is his first season out of the junior ranks.

Photographer Simon Wilkinson spent stage five in the Great Britain team car to bring you these behind-the-scenes photos.