{"id":116881,"date":"2026-09-03T17:32:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T17:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/116881\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T17:32:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T17:32:30","slug":"2026-mens-tour-of-britain-preview-race-route-and-favourites-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/116881\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 men’s Tour of Britain preview: Race route and favourites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Autumn has fully arrived, nowhere more so than in the UK, where rain and ‘drizzle’ is the prevailing weather. While the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a is in full swing on (sunny) Spanish roads, another peloton will be in Great Britain from Wednesday, September 2, through Sunday, September 6.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Lloyds Tour of Britain<\/a> promises five days of top-notch racing: from short and steep climbs and cobblestone sections to lightning-fast bunch sprints. IDL Pro Cycling takes an in-depth look at the route, timings and favorites for stage and overall win!Recent Winners of the Tour of Britain<\/p>\n

2025: Romain Gr\u00e9goire
2024: Stephen Williams
2023: Wout van Aert
2022: Gonzalo Serrano<\/p>\n

2021: Wout van Aert
2019: Mathieu van der Poel
2018: Julian Alaphilippe
2017: Lars Boom<\/p>\n

\"romain-gregoire\"\/<\/p>\n

Romain Gr\u00e9goire, winner in 2025<\/p>\n

2026 Tour of Britain Route<\/p>\n

There are five stages scheduled for this season. While Wales served as the backdrop for the decisive mountain stage last year, this year the organisers are heading to the east and north of England and the Scottish borders. The result? An extremely exciting route with something for everyone.<\/p>\n

Stage 1, Wednesday, September 2: Lincoln \u2013 Lincoln (182.5 km)\"etappe-1-britain\"\/Lewis Askey laid down a marker on stage 1 of the Tour of Britain<\/a>. After the day’s main breakaway was caught on the penultimate lap of the finishing circuit, a strong group of rouleurs broke away. Askey, Philippo Ganna, Jasper Stuyven worked well together for the final 30km, before Florian Vermeersch broke away with 3km to go.It looked like it was all over, before Askey exploded onto the final ascent of Michaelgate and powered past Vermeersch like he was standing still. Askey managed to hold his lead over 2nd place Ganna and 3rd place Tim Wellens<\/a>.Stage 2, Thursday, September 3: Boston \u2013 Skegness (181.1 km)\"etappe-2-britain\"\/<\/p>\n

It was a much simpler course, but the wind made the second stage incredibly exciting. Filippo Ganna suffered a puncture at the worst possible moment and could forget about the general classification after the peloton was split up. It came down to a sprint in the leading group, and there Tim Merlier was far too strong for Olav Kooij.<\/p>\n

Stage 3, Friday, September 4: Hull \u2013 Beverley (194.1 km)\"etappe-3-britain\"\/<\/p>\n

Stage three takes the peloton through East Yorkshire for nearly 200 kilometers. Along the way, three climbs in the Yorkshire Wolds await, followed by four 16-kilometer laps in Beverley. The final kilometer to Beverley Racecourse is slightly uphill. A thinned-out peloton or a very strong sprinter will prevail here.<\/p>\n

Favorites:
Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM
Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step)
Ethan Vernon<\/a> (NSN)<\/p>\n

Timings:<\/p>\n

Start – 10:30am GMT<\/p>\n

Finish – 15:10pm GMT<\/p>\n

Stage 4, Saturday, September 5: Helmsley \u2013 Leyburn (165.8 km)\"etappe-4-britain\"\/<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s queen stage takes place on Saturday. The riders will traverse the rugged Yorkshire Dales, a terrain that isn\u2019t flat for a single meter. With several steep climbs and narrow English roads, this is the day when the general classification is set to be turned upside down. Puncheurs and classics specialists will have to give it their all here.<\/p>\n

Favorites:
Beno\u00eet Cosnefroy<\/a> (UAE Emirates-XRG)
Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step)
Alessandro Pinarello (NSN)<\/p>\n

Timings:<\/p>\n

Start – 11:00am GMT<\/p>\n

Finish – 15:20pm GMT<\/p>\n

Stage 5, Sunday, September 6: Earlston \u2013 Earlston (156.1 km)\"etappe-5-britain\"\/<\/p>\n

The final stage crosses the border into the Scottish Borders. Starting and finishing in Earlston, the riders will face one more treacherous, undulating course. It\u2019s a stage well-suited for a strong breakaway, though the general classification contenders will have to stay sharp until the very last meter to secure their positions.<\/p>\n

Favorites:
Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM
Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step)
Ethan Vernon (NSN)<\/p>\n

Timings:<\/p>\n

Start – 11:00am GMT<\/p>\n

Finish – 15:00pm GMT<\/p>\n

2026 Tour of Britain GC favourites<\/p>\n

Not many WorldTour teams are at the start, but they do have some interesting names in the lineup. UAE Emirates-XRG has three potential winners in Beno\u00eet Cosnefroy, Felix Grossschartner, and Tim Wellens, though they\u2019ll need to build up a large enough lead in Stages 1 and 4 to ensure the sprinters can\u2019t close the gap in other stages with bonus seconds.<\/p>\n

Ilan Van Wilder will be on the starting line for Soudal Quick-Step. After the Tour de France, we\u2019re curious to see how he\u2019ll perform in the races ahead. Dylan van Baarle, too, could go far in a race like this if he\u2019s in good form. On the NSN team, Alessandro Pinarello is an interesting climber who can make a difference in punchy finishes and on the climbs on Day 4.<\/p>\n

Pinarello-Q36.5 won\u2019t have the top favorite on its roster, but Mark Donovan might just be able to do a little better on home turf. At Tudor, Yannis Voisard is a climber, but how well will he handle the explosive climbs in Great Britain? We\u2019re highlighting Riley Pickrell as an outsider at Modern Adventure.<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"ilan-van-wilder\"\/<\/p>\n

Ilan Van Wilder<\/p>\n

Weather and TV coverage of the 2026 Tour of Britain<\/p>\n

The weather in Great Britain can go either way in September. Forecasts call for changeable weather on the opening days, with temperatures around 18 to 20 degrees and a moderate wind from the North Sea. Crosswinds on the coastal stage to Skegness are certainly not out of the question!<\/p>\n

You can follow the Tour of Britain live every day on Eurosport \/ HBO Max and on ITV4 (UK only). The stage finishes are always in the late afternoon. IDL Pro Cycling will provide daily in-depth coverage, reactions, and results!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Autumn has fully arrived, nowhere more so than in the UK, where rain and ‘drizzle’ is the prevailing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[47217,13,2919,47219,44246,47218,1790,47096],"class_list":["post-116881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-benoit-cosnefroy","tag-britain","tag-cycling","tag-ethan-vernon","tag-previews","tag-tim-wellens","tag-tour-of-britain","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117208308049367737","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}