The 2021 Tour of Britain was an eight-stage men's professional road cyclingstage race. It was the seventeenth running of the modern version of the Tour of Britain and the 80th British tour in total. The race started on 5 September in Penzance, Cornwall, and finished on 12 September in Aberdeen, Scotland.[3]
On 22 April 2021, race organizers announced the first confirmed teams that would be participating in the race, with those being all five British UCI Continental teams and a British national team.[6] On 10 August 2021, the rest of the invited teams were announced. Seven UCI WorldTeams, four UCI ProTeams, six UCI Continental teams, and the British national team made up the eighteen teams that participated in the race.[7][8]Arkéa–Samsic, with five riders, was the only team to not enter a full squad of six riders. In total, 107 riders started the race, of which 94 finished.[9]
On 17 March 2021, the start and finish venues, along with partial route details, were unveiled, with some of the route from the cancelled 2020 edition carried over to this year's edition. Cornwall made its race debut as it hosted the Grand Départ and the first stage, before the race continued north into Devon for stage 2. Wales then hosted two full stages for the first time in race history. From there, the race entered North West England, as Cheshire hosted stage 5, while stage 6 started in Cumbria and headed east into North East England. The last two stages took place in Scotland, with Hawick and Aberdeen making their race debuts, while Edinburgh was a first-time finish location.[3][10] On 20 July, the rest of the route was released.[11][12][13]
On stage 2, Nils Eekhoff, who was second in the points classification, wore the cyan jersey, because first-placed Wout van Aert wore the blue jersey as the leader of the general classification.
On stage 2, Max Walker, who was second in the sprints classification, wore the red jersey, because first-placed Jacob Scott wore the green jersey as the leader of the mountains classification. On stage 3, Walker, who dropped down to third, continued to wear the red jersey, in place of first-placed Scott and second-placed Robin Carpenter, who wore the blue jersey as the leader of the general classification.
On stage 4, Rory Townsend, who was second in the points classification, wore the cyan jersey, because first-placed Ethan Hayter wore the blue jersey as the leader of the general classification.
On stages 4–8, Robin Carpenter, who was second in the sprints classification, wore the red jersey, because first-placed Jacob Scott wore the green jersey as the leader of the mountains classification.
On stage 7, Michael Woods, who was fourth in the points classification, wore the cyan jersey, because first-placed Ethan Hayter wore the blue jersey as the leader of the general classification, second-placed Julian Alaphilippe wore the rainbow jersey as the defending world road race champion, and third-placed Wout van Aert wore the Belgian jersey as the defending Belgian road race champion. For the same reason, Gonzalo Serrano wore the cyan jersey on stage 8.
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