The Tour of Britian will return to central London in 2011, with the race’s finale set to take place on Whitehall on Sunday September 18.
The Tour’s final stage in 2010 took place in Newham, the Olympic and Paralympic host borough, after central London finishes in 2008 and 2009.
But the race will return to Westminster this year, less than a week before the World Championships in Denmark – with the Tour of Britain providing the final opporunity for rider’s to fine-tune their rainbow jersey preparations.
“As previous years have shown the circuit we are using is perfectly suited to the sprinters, so I expect to see the stage again culminate in a bunch sprint,” said race director Mick Bennett. “In previous years riders of the calibre of Mark Cavendish, Matt Goss and Andre Greipel have all won sprint stages, so I’m sure that 2011 will be no different.
“With the World Championships in Copenhagen just a week after the Tour of Britain, this will be a dress rehearsal for some of the world’s top sprinters to go head-to-head before the worlds. The course in Denmark looks to be suited to the sprinters, so there is a very real chance that we could see a world champion in waiting winning in London.”
HTC-Highroad rider Michael Albasini won the 2010 Tour of Britain, with the eight-stage race widely hailed as the best yet. The full route for the 2011 event, which starts in Scotland on Sunday September 11, will be announced in the spring.
Hugh Roberts, chief executive of organisers SweetSpot, added: “For our partners and sponsors and of course our fans it is very important that we return to central London, for what will be a spectacular finish to the 2011 Tour of Britain.
“As Britain’s biggest professional cycle race and this country’s largest free-to-spectate sporting event it is important that we finish with an iconic finale, and as we showed in 2008 and 2009 there is no better place to hold The Tour of Britain than at the heart of London.”
