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Mick Bennett, race director on the Tour of Britain, has hit again at criticism of this 12 months’s race after Jumbo-Visma’s Wout van Aert was topped winner of the 2023 version at Caerphilly Fortress on Sunday.
Bennett mentioned the race’s critics “didn’t perceive the larger image” of placing on an eight-day race within the present financial local weather, admitting the Tour of Britain was nonetheless very a lot “treading water” post-Covid.
Jumbo-Visma received the primary 5 levels of this 12 months’s race, the primary 4 through sprinter Olav Kooij earlier than Van Aert himself took over the race lead with a late solo assault into Felixstowe on stage 5.
Many followers, and even riders resembling Ines Grenadiers’ Tom Pidcock and pundits resembling former British champion Brian Smith, criticised this 12 months’s race, saying the race featured too many sprints and was too predictable. Others criticised the dearth of time bonuses this 12 months which meant the highest normal classification riders shared the identical time till stage 5, and had been solely separated by three seconds by the top of the race.
Bennett described such criticism as “irritating”. “Not everyone is a fan of biking,” he informed Telegraph Sport after Sunday’s end. “They don’t all perceive the complexities concerned in placing on a race. And I get that, and respect that. It’s while you get criticised by the so-called biking cognoscenti who suppose we’re simply purely there for his or her leisure.”
Bennett mentioned that with cuts to funding, native authorities weren’t precisely queueing as much as host levels, and those who did had been in a position to demand particular days. Additionally, with a restrict of two hours driving between levels written into the phrases of the race, that dictated to a big half the place the race was in a position to go and when.
“We aren’t able but to inform [potential venues] ‘Sorry, it’s important to take that stage on at the present time.’ These are tough occasions. Regretfully we had to cancel the Women’s Tour this year. And the Tour Sequence. We’re nonetheless treading water post-Covid. We’d like a giant sponsor actually. One other Aviva or AJ Bell. Maybe an vitality firm… However I believe we did a great job within the circumstances.”
Bennett argued the race this 12 months, which featured simply 96 riders, had additionally suffered on account of Brexit, which put some groups off coming to the UK. “We’ve simply completed the world championships in Glasgow and it took among the groups 4 hours after they acquired to Dover to finish their paperwork [to leave the country],” he mentioned. “To have that once more [coming back] three weeks later… And you then’re up towards the Vuelta a España, [Grand Prix Cycliste de] Montréal, [Grand Prix Cycliste de] Quebec, that are on on the identical time…”
Van Aert was put underneath stress over the course of a hillier weekend in Gloucestershire and Wales, though sadly not by Pidcock who pulled out of the race on Saturday with saddlesore.
As an alternative it was his Ineos Grenadiers’ team-mate Carlos Rodríguez who took it to Jumbo-Visma on the ultimate day, escaping with native rider Stevie Williams on the climb of Bryn Du with simply over 50km remaining.
Though Williams light within the closing kilometres, Rodríguez clung on for the stage win with Van Aert second over the road, 11 seconds later, to seal the final classification by three seconds.
Bennett mentioned the race would “look rigorously” at whether or not to incorporate time bonuses subsequent 12 months. “If we’d included them this 12 months, the identical crew [Jumbo-Visma] would have been even additional forward this 12 months,” he argued. “We try to create a detailed race. That is all about attracting viewers to our fantastic sport.”
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