LONDON, UK - The 2014 Tour of Britain will take place from Sunday 7 September to Sunday 14 September following confirmation from the UCI of the official race dates.
However the UCI failed to upgrade the race from its current third tier 2.1 status, something which the Tour organisers SweetSpot had been hoping would happen. They had been hoping that the Tour of Britain would become a 2HC race, one level below the Grand Tours, which would offer riders more UCI points for winning and would therefore attract bigger teams, greater prize money and a high standard of riders.
The 2014 race will be the eleventh year of the Tour of Britain in its current format and it has grown substantially in the past three years with the quality of riders increasing substantially. Sir Bradley Wiggins, who won the 2013 race, admitted that when he started riding the Tour of Britain that riders would stay up drinking late into the night and treated it largely as an end of season wind-down. Now it is increasingly being seen by teams as a serious race which puts riders in good shape for the Worlds.
SweetSpot issued a press statement, saying: "SweetSpot have contacted both the UCI and British Cycling to request an explanation for the decision and would like to register their disappointment at the continued lack of communication from the UCI on the matter over the past 24-months.
"Thus far an adequate explanation for the decision or clarification on the criteria for an upgrade to HC status has not been provided."
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