2012 Tour of Britain


The 2012 Tour of Britain was the ninth running of the current Tour of Britain and the 73rd British tour in total. The race consisted of eight stages, starting on 9 September in Ipswich, and finishing on 16 September in Guildford. The race was part of the 2012 UCI Europe Tour, and was categorised by the UCI as a 2.1 category race.
The race was originally won by rider Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, who became the first British rider to win the race in its current guise and the first to win a British tour since Chris Lillywhite won the 1993 Milk Race. Tiernan-Locke assumed the race lead with a second-place finish on the sixth stage and maintained the lead until the end of the race. He won by eighteen seconds ahead of Australia's Nathan Haas, who rode for the squad, and the podium was rounded out by 's Damiano Caruso, who finished five seconds behind Haas and twenty-three seconds in arrears of Tiernan-Locke. In 2014 however, following investigation for biological passport irregularities, Tiernan-Locke was banned for two years and stripped of his 2012 victory.
In the race's other classifications, rider Boy Van Poppel won the points classification for the most consistent finisher in each of the stages; despite not winning any stages, Van Poppel placed four times inside the top three placings of a stage. The mountains classification was won by a rider for the second year in succession, as Kristian House succeeded Tiernan-Locke as the winner; the sprints classification was won by Peter Williams of the team, while won the teams classification.

Teams

The winner of the 2012 Tour de France, Bradley Wiggins, participated in the race, alongside 2011 World Champion Mark Cavendish for. Two-time Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso also contested the race for – the squad making their debut in the race – and Samuel Sánchez also competed in the race for the first time as part of the team. Among the domestic teams, Jonathan Tiernan-Locke was the designated leader of the team.

Stage 1

;9 September 2012 – Ipswich to Royal Norfolk Showground,
The opening stage of the 2012 Tour of Britain was a primarily flat stage, with the first of the Yodel intermediate sprint points coming in the village of Melton, before the first Škoda King of the Mountains climb came in another Suffolk village, in Snape. The second King of the Mountains point came at the village of Westleton, with the second sprint coming in Great Yarmouth. The final sprint was at Coltishall, with the final King of the Mountains climb coming at Swanton Morley; all three climbs during the stage were third-category ascents. A quartet of riders – 's Niels Wytinck, rider Kristian House, Rony Martias of and Jonathan Clarke, representing the team – made the early breakaway from the field, locking out the top placings at each of the three intermediate sprint points and the three categorised climbs during the stage.
Martias finished first at two of the three sprints, and thus took the race's first sprints jersey, while House earned the polka-dot jersey for heading the mountains classification, and Wytinck earned the award for the day's most combative rider. The breakaway, which had an advantage of seven minutes over the field at one point during the stage, was caught with around remaining, which was expected set up a sprint finish at the Royal Norfolk Showground. However, a large crash with around remaining delayed a large portion of the peloton, leaving few riders to contest the final sprint; rider Luke Rowe prevailed to take his first professional victory ahead of Clarke's team-mate Boy Van Poppel and 's Russell Downing. Rowe took the first leader's jersey by three seconds ahead of Martias, who was sixth on the stage but moved up due to bonus seconds from the intermediate sprints.
'''Stage 1 result'''

Stage 2

;10 September 2012 – Nottingham to Knowsley Safari Park,
The first sprint point on the second stage was contested just over into the stage, at Duffield. After the sprint point, there were three successive first-category climbs on the parcours, coming at Cross o' th' Hands, Alstonefield and finally Morridge. The two final sprint points were at Chelford and Culcheth with the stage finishing, for the first time, at Knowsley Safari Park on the outskirts of Liverpool. The breakaway for the stage consisted of six riders, and they managed to remain off the front of the field for the majority of the stage. Making up the group were stagiaire Matthias Krizek, Jack Bobridge of, Peter Williams representing the team, 's Richard Handley, rider Russell Hampton and Pablo Urtasun for the squad. The sextet managed to establish a lead of over four minutes at one stage on the roads, but were gradually brought back by the peloton, led once again by with assistance from ; both teams were looking to set up their sprinters Mark Cavendish and Russell Downing respectively.
The leaders managed to remain clear until around ; Bobridge and Williams resisted capture for another few kilometres, but all was together before the to go banner. There were several late-stage attacks from riders representing the domestic teams, but it was ultimately a sprint finish within the safari park for the stage honours. were on the front with race leader Luke Rowe leading out Cavendish, but the pair became separated in the closing stages, allowing Boy Van Poppel and Bobridge's team-mate Leigh Howard into space. Howard beat a recovering Cavendish to the line for his first win of the year, while a third place for Van Poppel, compared to a tenth for Rowe – with a one-second time gap – allowed Van Poppel to take the lead in the general and points classifications from Rowe. This was despite Rowe receiving the leader's jersey during the post-stage podium ceremonies.
'''Stage 2 result'''

Stage 3

;11 September 2012 – Jedburgh to Dumfries,
File:The 2012 Tour of Britain Cycle Race at Muchra - geograph.org.uk - 3129619.jpg|thumb|upright|The peloton, around halfway through the stage in the Southern Uplands
The third stage of the race started with an almost immediate sprint point, into the stage at Hawick. Like the second stage, there were three successive King of the Mountain points, with two first-category climbs and a second-category climb coming at Roberton, Turner Cleuch and Grey Mare's Tail respectively. The two final sprints were contested at and respectively, at Lochmaben and Whitesands in Dumfries. Following a finishing loop of around in length, the finish of the stage itself was contested on Whitesands for the second successive year; Mark Cavendish led home team-mate Mark Renshaw in a 1–2 finish in the race-opening stage, in 2011.
Five riders were part of the breakaway during the stage; the group consisted of riders mainly from the domestic teams – all bar one of the five – as Bernard Sulzberger of was joined by rider Peter Hawkins, 's Kristian House and Peter Williams, representing the team, with the group completed by stagiaire Wesley Kreder. Williams was looking to defend his lead in the sprints classification, while House was out to regain the lead in the mountains classification, that he had lost the previous day to rider Pablo Urtasun. House ultimately regained his mountains lead with a first and two seconds – both to Sulzberger – while Williams extended his lead with two intermediate sprint wins.
The peloton had given them a maximum advantage of four minutes during the stage, before gradually pulling them back, being led by the team of race leader Boy Van Poppel. Hawkins and Kreder left their breakaway companions behind on the finishing loop around Dumfries, while rider Sep Vanmarcke attacked out of the peloton to join up with the two leaders around later. Hawkins was almost immediately dropped after that, with Kreder and Vanmarcke managing to hold off the peloton until around to go, as the and had ramped up the pace in the peloton ahead of the sprint finish. With a lead-out from opening stage winner Luke Rowe, Cavendish took victory in Dumfries for the second consecutive year, ahead of pairing Leigh Howard and Aidis Kruopis. With six bonus seconds on the line, Howard assumed the overall lead of the race, with Cavendish level on time; Van Poppel fell to third but held on to the lead of the points classification.
'''Stage 3 result'''

Stage 4

;12 September 2012 – Carlisle to Blackpool,
The fourth stage of the race started in Carlisle, where two sprints and two King of the Mountain points were all contested within the first of the stage. The first two sprint points were held at Shap and Kendal, interspersed with two-second-category climbs at Shap Fell and Old Hutton. The final sprint of the day was situated at Caton and the final King of the Mountain point of the day was the third-category climb at Quernmore. The stage finished on the Golden Mile in Blackpool, where André Greipel had won the most recent finish there in the race-opening stage in 2010; the stage scheduled to finish in Blackpool in 2011 was cancelled due to inclement weather conditions after the remnants of Hurricane Katia hit the country. The main breakaway of the day was initiated during the opening kilometres of the stage, and involved six riders.
The group – consisting of mountains classification leader Kristian House, Ronan McLaughlin of, 's Niklas Gustavsson, rider Dan Craven, Matt Cronshaw of and David Lelay representing the team – quickly gained an advantage of around seven minutes on the peloton, before they started attacking one another with around remaining. House and Gustavsson were initially dropped, while in the peloton, echelons were formed with, reducing the group to twenty-seven riders in depth. McLaughlin and Craven pushed on together off the front, before they were caught with remaining. This ultimately set up a reduced sprint finish, where rider Mark Cavendish won for the second day running, ahead of Australian pair Steele Von Hoff and race leader Leigh Howard of. Cavendish assumed the race lead from Howard by six seconds, having previously stated that he did not want to hold the leader's jersey, to remain in the world champion's jersey ahead of defending his title in Valkenburg in the Netherlands.
'''Stage 4 result'''