The Tour of Britain – the 2013 race route of which is to be revealed next week – has re-signed global online bike shop Chain Reaction Cycles as jersey sponsors for the September race.
“It was a huge success last year,” Grant Norris, global head of events, said of the Tour of Britain. “We’re just happy to continue. We came on quite late last year, maybe with three or four weeks to go, and [the organisers’] professionalism was brilliant in putting forward the rights that they afforded us.”
Like last year, Chain Reaction Cycles will sponsor the points jersey, which was won in 2012 by Dutch rider Boy Van Poppel, who beat Mark Cavendish to the title as the most consistent rider during the eight-day race.
Norris said the Tour Rides – sportives that accompany the pro race – will be a major focus of attention. This year there will be two – one in Scotland and one centred on Stoke-on-Trent in the Midlands.
The company’s renewed sponsorship forms part of a record year of sponsorship in 2013. “When I came on board a couple of years ago we had eight or nine events, including the ITU (International Triathlon Union) and this year we’ve got 31 event 11 different countries,” Norris told BikeRadar.
At the beginning of the year, Chain Reaction Cycles also announced they were sponsoring the Irish-Belgian squad An Post Sean Kelly.
The Tour of Britain route will be unveiled on 21 March. The race – which attracts the biggest field of top tier pros to the UK – will run between 15-22 September 2013.