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.

Le Tour prologue winner Fabian Cancellara

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 9th September.

Hunter, of Team Barlowworld, became the first African rider
to win a stage of the Tour de France, when 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 15th
September to see whether Pedersen can do this.

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. Yorkshiremen Swift and Clancy will both be keen to impress
on Stage 4 from Rotherham to Bradford.

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 squad’s line-up.

Recycling.co.uk brings a young all British line-up led by Olympic
and World Champion Chris Newton. 19-year-old Simon Holt will be especially looking
forward to Stage 3, which passes just south of his home town of Telford where
Holt is sure to get plenty of support on his home roads, while Rob Partridge
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, who’ll be looking forward
to Stage 6 in his native Scotland, and Tony Gibb, winner of the Blackpool Grand
Prix in July.

Another Scottish rider who’ll be looking to perform in front of his home
crowd on the final stage is Evan Oliphant. The current Scottish Champion will
be riding on the same DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed team as Dan
Lloyd, fresh from 2nd place in the British National Championships where
he finished just one second behind the eventual winner, Gabriel Missaglia. Lloyd
grew up in the New Forest, making the latter parts of Stage 1 familiar to the
rider.

The Navigators Insurance Cycling Team have a strong home influence
too, bringing Kristian House who has represented Great Britain on both the road
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 Argentine won the prologue
of The Tour of Portugal earlier this month and wore the leader’s jersey
for three stages.

Fuerteventura-Canarias will bring Javier Cherro Molina, 3rd placed in the 2005 Tour
of Britain, back to the race alongside riders like Rodrigo
Garcia Rena and Manuel Lloret Zaragozi, who have both been in winning form in
2007.

While Konica – Minolta may be a new name to the Tour, one
of their riders is not. Rodney Green won the Sprints Classification back in
2004, and he’ll be keen for more success.

Iljo Keisse is another familiar face to Tour of Britain spectators, having
ridden the race twice before, finishing 6th Overall last year. This year he’ll
be leading the Chocolade Jacques – Topsport Vlaanderen team, which 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 on 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 2nd on Stage
2 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, on 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 and 7th Overall in January’s
Tour Down Under Gene Bates to lead their challenge.

To keep up-to-date on any changes to the start list then click
on, www.tourofbritain.co.uk,
where you’ll be able to find all the latest Tour of Britain news.