This page is one part of my preview of the 2013 Tour of Britain.
Bradley Wiggins is riding. Furthermore, Bradley Wiggins plans on racing. Last year, he was pretty much just turning out to say hello to roadside Britons after winning the Tour and an Olympic gold medal. This year, he’s looking to be in top condition for the world time trial championships which take place shortly afterwards. Historically, Team Sky have generally completely ballsed up the Tour of Britain, but Wiggins will be team leader this year and I think he plans on winning.
Mark Cavendish will also be riding. Sprinters have finished at the top of the general classification in the Tour of Britain in previous years thanks to a relatively flat route and time bonuses, but I don’t think that’ll happen this year. He’ll therefore be looking to pick up a few stage wins and perhaps the points competition.
Tour de France runner-up, Nairo Quintana, will ride for Movistar. No idea what form he’s in or how serious he is, but I’ve never really seen him not try and win. He’ll therefore be looking to see if he can shed a recently-enlarged (to normal, healthy human size) Wiggins on some of the climbs.
Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner, Dan Martin, is another decent climber taking part, while Alex Dowsett, who beat Wiggins in the Giro time trial, will be looking to do the same again on the Knowsley stage. I’m not sure whether either will be targeting the general classification, but they’ll be taking different approaches if they are.
New faces to look out for are twin brothers Adam and Simon Yates, who recently performed very strongly in the Tour de l’Avenir (literally the tour of the future) finishing second and tenth, respectively.
Last year’s winner, Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, has struggled with the higher level of UCI WorldTour races since moving to Sky and unfortunately hasn’t been selected for their team.