The Tour of Britain is the country’s principal professional stage race, taking the peloton through a changing selection of British regions, cities and landscapes. Its routes have crossed exposed moorlands, steep rural roads, national parks, historic market towns and major urban centres, making the character of each edition closely dependent on the parts of Britain chosen for that year’s race.
Around the Peloton follows the Tour of Britain stage by stage, uncovering medieval settlements, industrial heritage, historic estates and the geography that shaped communities along the route. Beyond the racing, the Tour becomes a moving journey through Britain, revealing places and stories often hidden behind the countryside seen from the road.
The 2026 Tour of Britain ends in a landscape where stories have always travelled easily between history and legend. The final stage begins in Earlston, home of a medieval figure remembered as Thomas the Rhymer, who existed in historical records…
The fourth stage of the Tour of Britain begins beneath the ruins of a castle whose medieval lord was one of the barons appointed to enforce Magna Carta, then travels across a part of Yorkshire where almost every change in…
Stage 3 begins beside a river that made a city and soon reaches a sea that is slowly destroying a coastline. From Hull, the Tour of Britain travels east across Holderness until the land ends at the North Sea. The…
The second stage of the Tour of Britain begins and ends in two Lincolnshire towns whose histories were transformed by journeys away from them. From Boston, religious dissenters crossed the North Sea and eventually the Atlantic, carrying with them a…
There are few better places in Britain to begin a bicycle race than the square between Lincoln Castle and Lincoln Cathedral. On one side stands a fortress ordered by William the Conqueror after the Norman invasion; on the other rises…
