Council helps visitors and residents adopt a Tour of Britain Team

5 September 2011

South Lakeland District Council is encouraging local schools and residents to ‘adopt a team’, as Kendal gears up to welcome the UK’s biggest professional bicycle race, The Tour of Britain.

With 16 teams to choose from, schools and other adopters will need to decide on a suitable basis for their selection, such as favourite colour, riders within the team, or nationality.

Schools with a blue uniform might wish to adopt a team that races in a predominantly blue jersey.  These would be: Team HTC Highroad (light blue); Vacansoleil (dark blue with extensive yellow sun motifs) and UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling (with a white band carrying blue stripes on the front). White and blue are worn by Team Raleigh and Team Net App.

Green jerseys are worn by Team Europcar and the AN Post Sean Kelly Racing Team.  A bright orange jersey is sported by riders in the Rabobank team, whilst Motorpoint Pro Cycling has a smart black jersey with extensive orange detail on the sleeves and sides and across the chest.

Black jerseys are the racing strip of Sigma Sport (black and red), Rapha Condor Sharp (black with white and pink detail), Leopard Trek (black and turquoise blue), Garmin Cervelo (black with white and blue elements) and Endura Racing (black with green lettering and shoulder flashes).  The SKY Professional Cycling Team may be a popular choice, racing in a black jersey with blue logo and large white panel on the back.

The ‘busiest’ jersey, full of different logos and predominantly white with yellow elements, is worn by Top Sport Vlaanderen Mercator.

Supporters may wish to base their ‘adoption’ on the riders racing.  Each team has six riders and reserves that can pedal in, if needed.  Olympic gold medallst, Ed Clancy, leads the Rapha Condor Sharp team and another homegrown gold medallist, Welshman Geraint Thomas, is leading Team SKY.  Just recently announced is the news everyone’s been waiting for .. Mark Cavendish will ride as number 1 for Team HTC Highroad!

Olympics 2012 hopeful, Andy Tennant from Great Britain, and former British champion, Kristian House, also race for Rapha condor Sharp, whilst Team SKY has a strong British contingent of racers – Geraint Thomas, Ben Swift, Peter Kennaugh and Alex Dowsett.

Leopard Trek is led by treble Tour de France stage winner, Jens Voight, and also boasts 2006 tour of Britain winner Martin Pedersen.

Rabobank’s lead rider is Olympic silver medallist and five-time World Track Champion, Theo Bos, racing alongside a young and highly talented rider, Michael Matthew - the under-23 Road Race World Champion.

Those proud of Cumbria’s fells and mountains might opt for 2010 Tour de France King of the Mountains, Anthony Charteau, racing for Team Europcar, whilst others, wanting to get behind a strongly-backed team, could support Garmin Cervelo, led by 2010 Senior Road Race World Champion, Thor Hushovd.

Those living in Kendal, but originating from other countries, may decide to plump for nationality as the basis of their team selection.  Five of the six Team Europcar riders are French and five of the six Rabobank riders Dutch.  All riders for Top Sport Vlaanderen Mercator are Belgian, Leopard Trek has two German riders and United Healthcare is led by another German, the Tour Grand Stage Winner, Robert Förster.

Teams with two Australian riders are Team SKY and United Healthcare.  Polish cyclist, Bartosz Huzarski is racing for Team Net App, a team debuting at the Tour of Britain this year. Team Net App also has two Czech riders and one Italian – Cesare Benedetti.  A second Italian rider, Giacomo Nizzolo, is racing for Leopard Trek.

AN Post Sean Kelly has two Irish riders, a Lithuanian, a Belgian and two Brits, whilst Africa is represented by Namibian, Dan Craven, racing for Rapha Condor Sharp, and Daryl Impey from South Africa, racing for Team Net App. 

Americans Chris Jones and Soctt Zwizanski both race for United Healthcare, whilst Kiwi rider Julian Dean, is racing for Garmin Cervelo, led by Norwegian Thor Hushovd.  The sole Japanese rider Yukija Arashiro joins the 5 Frenchmen in Team Europcar and Dane, Martin Pedersen is riding for Leopard Trek.

Fans of British cycling hero, Chris Boardman, might want to get behind United Healthcare, which works with Chris and races Boardman bikes.

Not all of the teams have yet revealed their line-up, so supporters should keep track of the news at http://www.tourofbritain.com/ over the next few days.  The race covers nine stages, cycled over eight days, starting in Peebles, Scotland on Sunday, September 11.  The second stage will start on Monday, September 12 from Abbot Hall Park in the Kirkland area of Kendal, at 10.30am and head to a finish in Blackpool later that day.

There will be nine stage winners, a Skoda King of the Mountains winner (seizing a white jersey with green spots on the top half), and a Yodel Sprints winner (acquiring a lime green jersey with pink patterning) after a series of sprint races within the 8-day event.

The race will have an iconic finish in Whitehall, London, on September 18, following a time trial through the city’s streets of the city and a laps circuit race.  This thrilling final stage will determine the overall winner and be awarded the Tour of Britain’s coveted IG Markets Gold Jersey, succeeding last year’s winner, Michael Albasini.