London Grand Prix to support Tour of Britain

The 'London Grand Prix', based on a grandstand circuit at the heart of central London, will support the opening stage of this year's Tour of Britain on Sunday 7th September. As a round of the Elite Men's Circuit Race Series, the London Grand Prix will provide an action packed curtain raiser to the main event and will certainly whet the crowd's appetite for bike racing with some thrilling action ahead of Stage 1 of the Tour. The event returns to the streets of central London after being held last year at Crystal Palace ahead of the prologue of the Tour of Britain with Pinarello's Malcolm Elliott the winner. With Elliott due to ride the Tour of Britain itself with Pinarello this year, the opportunity is there for a new rider to be crowned King of London. The flag will drop at 10.30, with an hour's exciting action taking place over the short 'criterium circuit' before the winner is decided in front of spectators at the start/finish line on Victoria Embankment. The Elite Men's Circuit Race Series focuses on fast, technical criteriums based across the country in towns like Stone, Rochdale and Blackpool. The London Grand Prix forms the penultimate round of a series that usually goes down to the wire. The finale is at Warwick a week later. So far in 2008, Rapha - Condor - Recycling.co.uk's Dean Downing has been the man to beat, but like Elliott he's due to contest the Tour of Britain, opening the way for youngsters Simon Holt, Graham Briggs and Ian Wilkinson. Stage One of the Tour of Britain takes place after the London Grand Prix, beginning at 13.30 over ten laps of the full 8.6km circuit, which takes in the whole of Victoria Embankment and on to the Tower of London. The Tour of Britain 2008 The Stages Stage 1 London Circuit Stage 2 Milton Keynes to Newbury Stage 3 Chard to Burnham-on-Sea Stage 4 Worcester to Stoke-on-Trent Stage 5 Hull to Dalby Forest Stage 6 Darlington to Newcastle Gateshead Stage 7 Glasgow Green to Dumfries & Galloway Stage 8 Blackpool to Liverpool The Tour of Britain 2008 The Teams Agritubel An Post - M.Donnelly - Grant Thornton - Sean Kelly Cycling Team Barloworld Great Britain MTN Energade Palmeiras Resort - Tavira Pinarello RT - Candi TV Plowman Craven Cycling Team Rapha - Condor - Recycling.co.uk Rock Racing SouthAustralia.com - AIS Team CSC - Saxo Bank Team Columbia Team Garmin - Chipotle presented by H30 Topsport Vlaanderen