Double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe will both ride the upcoming Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men for Soudal Quick-Step, British Cycling Events revealed on Friday.
After recently winning two gold medals at the Paris Olympics, Evenepoel will make his Tour of Britain debut as he builds for the upcoming road World Championships in Zurich, Switzerland at the end of September.
Evenepoel will be joined on the start line, on 3 September in Kelso in the Scottish borders, by Alaphilippe in what is likely to be one of the final appearances the former two-time road world champion makes in the colours of Soudal Quick-Step. It was recently confirmed by Quick-Step boss Patrick Lefevere that after 11 years, Alaphilippe will leave the Belgian team at the end of the season.
Alaphilippe won the Tour of Britain in 2018, winning stages in Bristol and the Lake District on the way to overall victory. He also finished third on the podium in 2021, narrowly missing out on a second overall victory to Visma-Lease a Bike’s Wout van Aert.
Van Aert's Visma-Lease a Bike team will not be at the race this year.
Alaphilippe has already won stages of the Tour of Slovakia, Czech Tour and the Giro d’Italia this year. As well as a stage win in Fano, he also took home the Giro’s combativity award at the end of the race in Rome.
Alongside the two headline names, British Cycling also confirmed that Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech) will also be present at the race, as well as Jonas Abramsen (Uno-X Mobility). Vernon recently won a silver medal as part of the GB men’s team pursuit squad at the Paris Olympics.
Ineos Grenadiers, dsm–firmenich PostNL and Bahrain Victorious complete the WorldTour lineup set to compete in the event. None of the three teams have revealed their roster for the race, but Cycling Weekly understands Tom Pidcock is likely to feature for Ineos.
Pidcock was recently crowned double Olympic champion in cross-country mountain bike after taking gold in Paris.
This year’s race will be run over six stages - starting in Kelso on 3 September and wrapping up in Felixstowe, Suffolk on 8 September - with the aim of achieving future parity with the women’s equivalent, the Tour of Britain Women.
The national governing body’s newly formed major events arm are leading the organisation with Rod Ellingworth acting as race director. Ellingworth was appointed to his role at British Cycling in March.
Full route details were recently announced for the race with more than 5,000 metres of elevation gain on the menu across the first two days of action in Scotland and northern England. The peloton will then head south with stages in South Yorkshire, the East Midlands and Northamptonshire before its conclusion in Suffolk.
