The Tour Series

The first race I watched? The Tour Series. What captured my imagination and was the source of my aspiration? The Tour Series. News emerged today that the Tour Series would not be run in 2023. I’ve written some thoughts below.

The Tour Series is how I got into cycling. It is an event that puts on a thrilling spectacle in niche towns and cities. It is one of the biggest markets for UK sponsored cycling teams to leverage and create some return on their investments. Even one year out of the sport could create ripples for years to come.

🚨 Tour Series update 🚨

An update on the 2023 Tour Series, full story here 👉 https://t.co/rVNgYd3wRw#TourSeries pic.twitter.com/EHRYU58Nvb

— The Tour Series (@TourSeries) February 20, 2023

In my opinion, there are two events that are the staple of the British Cycling scene. Two events that every team can count on focusing their attention year on year. Two events that each and every rider on the British Domestic Continental teams fight to gain selection for. The Tour Series and The Tour of Britain. With just one of these events disappearing from the calendar, despite being for only a year, is testament to the state that the British Cycling Scene finds itself in. 

If you haven’t heard of the Tour Series let me briefly outline the premise. Unlike other races where the teams ride for an individual to succeed on any given day or stage; the entire premise of the series is to get the top three riders across the line in the lowest position possible. The best scenario would be first, second and third in any given race. There are other competitions intertwined in the race, like the points winner and individual winner on the night. To win the Tour Series though, the team has to win. 

The Tour Series captured my heart back in 2010 2009 when the event series came to Woking. The local round, where I could finish school on a weekday and drive down to watch the race unfold around a miniature circuit that I could see the riders rail the corners at mental speeds many times over, in one hour of racing. It was a vast contrast to the way of watching the World Tour ‘A’ to ‘B’ races. I loved the speed and the adrenalin that I was watching. You could get tantalisingly close to the racing action. 

Most would say Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins were the idols who offered inspiration to pursue cycling in their dreams. Realistically – although they certainly played their part for me – it was Dean Downing in his all white National Criterium Championships skinsuit doing the rounds on the other competitors that sparked my interest. That race in Woking he rode head and shoulders above the rest. I would come back a year later and be in awe of Ed Clancy’s sheer power that he could generate through the final corner into the closing metres, all whilst remaining in the saddle. I wanted to emulate these riders in my early years developing myself as a rider and athlete. 

These were the roots that steered my passion for cycling. These events were ultimately the races that encouraged me to join a British Cycling GoRide session in 2011. The races that bring me the most freedom and joy because of the purest racing they provide. No one does criterium racing like Britain. None that I’ve experienced anyway. 

My career has steered away from the British Cycling scene over the years, it has led to a very different style of racing than I initially thought. But a style of racing that holds a resemblance to the amount of panache, skill, tactical nous and adrenaline that the Tour Series requires. My desire to race the Tour Series, the Tour of Britain and the CiCle Classic will never wane. I fully hope the people who put on these events find a way to revitalise the Tour Series in the spectacular and exhilarating way they first achieved at the event’s initial creation in 2009. For the sake of the next generation of riders, and the survival of the top domestic British Cycling Teams.