Tour of Britain returns to Dumfries and Borders

SCOTLAND will host the opening stage of the Tour of Britain as Britain’s biggest professional cycle race celebrates its tenth anniversary this September.

The stage, on Sunday, 15 September, will start in Peebles and finish at Drumlanrig Castle.

On the Saturday, a mass participation “Tour Ride” will allow amateur cyclists to join the professionals in the peloton on the roads of the Borders and Dumfries & Galloway.

EventScotland chief Paul Bush said: “This will be the eighth Tour of Britain we have supported since 2005, and the event has certainly gone from strength to strength.”

Tour organiser Hugh Roberts added: “Peebles embraced The tour on our last visit there for the Grand Depart in 2011, so we are delighted to be returning.”

The Tour of Britain last visited Drumlanrig in 2008, when Edvald Boasson Hagen won, while Dumfries has hosted stage finishes in the past two years, both won by Mark Cavendish.

Stage One will take in a 200-kilometre route passing through Selkirk, Hawick, Gretna and Dumfries before a short finishing circuit around the castle.