World’s hottest talent will be in field

Warwickshire will host stage seven of Britain’s most prestigious road race and the 24-year-old Dutchman will lead his Corendon-Circus team for the event in September.

Van der Poel has been one of the standout names of the 2019 cycling season so far, taking five victories on the road, including the prestigious Amstel Gold Race in April, as well as becoming world, European and Dutch cyclo-cross champion.

It will be the debut of both van der Poel and his Belgian Corendon Circus UCI ProContinental team in the OVO Energy Tour of Britain.

Victory in the Amstel Gold Race came during a thrilling Spring Classics campaign that also saw van der Poel win the Dwars van Vlaanderen and Brabantse Pijl single day World Tour races, and finish fourth in the legendary Tour of Flanders. He recently continued his breakout season by taking his first ever UCI mountain bike World Cup victory in mid-May.

Van der Poel is the son of double Tour de France stage winner and 1996 World Cyclo-Cross Champion Adri, while his grandfather is eight-time Tour de France podium finisher and cycling great Raymond Poulidor.

The Tour of Britain begins in Glasgow’s George Square on Saturday, September 7, finishing eight days later on Deansgate in the heart of Manchester city centre on Saturday, September 17.

Warwickshire’s stage will go ahead on Friday, September 13. Starting at Warwick, the world’s top riders will pass through the University of Warwick, Kenilworth, Meriden – home to the National Cyclists’ Memorial – Atherstone, Bedworth and Wellesbourne.

Riders will climb Sunrising Hill before beginning the first of two full loops of a clockwise 12km finishing circuit around Burton Dassett Country Park and Farnborough, giving fans three chances to see the action.

Stage seven, which replicates much of stage four in June’s OVO Energy Women’s Tour, will feature three Eisberg Sprints at Berkswell, Brinlow and Pillerton Priors, and five Skoda King of the Mountains climbs.

ITV4 will once again screen live free-to-air coverage of each stage. For more information, visit www.tourofbritain.co.uk