On Sunday, September 6, North Wales will host the country’s biggest professional cycling race, as the Aviva Tour of Britain gets underway from Beaumaris on Anglesey, coming through Gwynedd’s Llanberis area and finishing up in Wrexham.
Every September the race attracts over a million road side watchers and is watched by more on television and on-line around the world. Llanberis will host the opening YodelDirect Sprint of the race, with riders contesting the first intermediate sprint of the 2015 edition a few metres away from where Mark Cavendish won stage four of the race in 2013.
Immediately afterwards riders will tackle the opening SKODA King of the Mountains Climb of Llanberis Pass, in the shadow of Wales’ biggest mountain, Snowdon.
Gwynedd Council’s Cabinet Member for the Economy, Councillor Mandy Williams-Davies said: “It’s great to see the Tour of Britain back once again to Gwynedd and especially Llanberis where we had such a spectacular finish with Mark Cavendish sprinting over the line in his imitable fashion in 2013.
“The people of Llanberis and Gwynedd are eager to welcome the Tour back once again as they did when it first came to North Wales and finished so spectacularly in the heart of the village.
“This time instead of coming down Llanberis pass they will be going up it, and I have no doubt that it will be one of the highlights of the live television coverage of the tour’s visit to North Wales which will show Snowdonia in all its glory.”
In addition to Stage One being broadcast live on ITV, a one-hour highlights programme will also be shown that evening on ITV4, while British Eurosport will also show the race in the UK. Live coverage and highlights will also be shown worldwide in excess of 120 countries.
For details of the Aviva Tour of Britain, go to www.tourofbritain.co.uk
