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Tour Series

British annual cycling series

The Tour Series is an annual series of cycling criterium races held in the United Kingdom since 2009. It is televised by ITV4 in the UK. The competition emphasises team effort with individual wins deemed less important.

The races are held over 1 hour of racing plus 5 laps. The team standings for each round are calculated by adding together the positions of the top three riders of each team (5 riders start for each team) and the team with the lowest score wins, and get 10 points for the overall championship. Each team gets 1 point less than the one in front of them, so second gets 9, third gets 8, and so on. In addition, there is the sprint competition. There are three sprints every race, and the top five riders are awarded points based on place: 1st, 5; 2nd, 4; 3rd, 3; 4th, 2 and 5th, 1. There is a competition each round, as well as an overall competition for the whole series.

012009 Series

The first series had 10 rounds across England. The first ever round was held in Milton Keynes, and the final round was held in Southend. Halfords BikeHut had the strongest team, made up largely of powerful sprinters who were suited to the criteriums. Few of the circuits were hilly, which was seen to aid Halfords.

Rounds

Tour Series 2009
Tour Series 2009

022010 Series

The series was now sponsored by Halfords, who no longer had their own team. There were again 10 rounds, including the round at Durham with its steep cobbled climb. This time Motorpoint, led by veteran Malcolm Elliott came out as victors, with Malcolm himself winning in Durham.

Rounds

032011 Series

The series was cut to only 8 rounds. The early stages were dominated by Rapha Condor-Sharp who won all of the first four rounds, both individually and as a team. This run was broken by Team Endura in the next two rounds, firstly winning the individual race, and then in the 6th round in Oldham, winning individually and overall.

Rounds

042012 Series

NFTO Pro Cycling's Jon Mould winning Round 6 of the Series in Edinburgh. Mould tied the record of three wins during a season, equalling Ed Clancy.
NFTO Pro Cycling's Jon Mould winning Round 6 of the Series in Edinburgh. Mould tied the record of three wins during a season, equalling Ed Clancy.

052013 Series

062014 Series

072015 Series

082016 Series

Kristian House celebrates winning Round 4 of the Series in Motherwell.
Kristian House celebrates winning Round 4 of the Series in Motherwell.

092017 Series

There were 10 rounds (and 11 races) in the 2017 series, condensed into the month of May and including Saturday night races for the first time.

Rounds

102018 Series

112019 Series

Jon Mould celebrates victory in Round 2 at Motherwell. Mould set records for most wins in a single Tour Series (6), and surpassed JLT-Condor teammate Ed Clancy for most wins in the competition's history.
Jon Mould celebrates victory in Round 2 at Motherwell. Mould set records for most wins in a single Tour Series (6), and surpassed JLT-Condor teammate Ed Clancy for most wins in the competition's history.

122021 Series

Following the cancellation of the 2020 event, the 2021 series was announced in June, with a scheduled three rounds taking place from 8 to 12 August.

Rounds

Round Date Location Men's events Women's events
Team winner Individual winner Points winner Team winner Individual winner Points winner
1 8 August Guisborough Ribble Weldtite Matthew Gibson Matthew Gibson Great Britain U23 Track Team Eluned King Jo Tindley
2 10 August Sunderland Canyon dhb SunGod Will Roberts Will Roberts CAMS-Basso Bikes Megan Barker Jo Tindley
3 12 August Castle Douglas Canyon dhb SunGod Charlie Tanfield Charlie Tanfield CAMS-Basso Bikes Megan Barker Jo Tindley
Series winners Ribble Weldtite None Matthew Gibson CAMS-Basso Bikes None Jo Tindley

132022 Series

142023

Event organisers SweetSpot announced in February 2023 that the Tour Series would not take place in 2023, citing pressures on local authority funding and wider economic challenges as the reasons. They stated that they would work on plans for the Series to return in 2024.

Watch videos about Tour SeriesExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Tour Series, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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