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Gold medalists Sir Bradley Wiggins, Owain Doull, and Elia Viviani, will headline the 126-rider list for the eight-day Tour of Britain race that will finish in central London on Sunday, September 11th.
30-time Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish is one of five silver medallists, alongside Tom Dumoulin and Australian team pursuit trio Jack Bobridge, Alex Edmondson and Michael Hepburn.
"It is fantastic to be able to welcome eight medallists from the Rio Olympics to the Tour of Britain, less than three weeks since British fans will have watched their successes on television,” said race director Mick Bennett, himself a double Olympic Games bronze medallist in the Team Pursuit.
The rider list also includes six current national road race champions, led by British Champion Adam Blythe who will ride for the Great Britain team, and six national time trial champions, amongst them a pair of former UCI World Hour Record holders Alex Dowsett and Rohan Dennis and three-time World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin.
Alongside Wiggins, Dylan Van Baarle is one of two former Tour of Britain winners in the field, while past British Road Race Champions Kristian House and Russell Downing ride for the ONE Pro Cycling and JLT Condor presented by Mavic teams respectively.
Likely to be contesting the sprints alongside Cavendish and Viviani, who are both multiple Tour of Britain stage winners, are Tour de France sprint ace Andre Greipel, double Giro d’Italia Points Jersey winner Giacomo Nizzolo, Dutch national champion Dylan Groenewegen and Australian rising star Caleb Ewan.
The 2016 Tour of Britain route features some of the toughest climbs used in the UK’s national Tour. Among the riders looking to contest the SKODA King of the Mountains jersey at these points will be Liege-Bastogne-Liege winners Wout Poels of Team Sky and Etixx Quick-Step’s Tour de France top ten finisher and Classics rider Dan Martin.
As well as stars of the present the Tour of Britain will continue to shine a light on future stars of the cycling world, with Adrien Costa, the youngest rider in the race at just 19 years old, and Tao Geoghegan Hart. Both have recently contested the Tour de l’Avenir, a mini-Tour de France for under-23s, finishing third and sixth overall, respectively.
Spectators in Scotland will have the chance to meet all of the teams at a free-to-attend Team Presentation event on Saturday, September 3rd in George Square, Glasgow. Three hours of live coverage will be broadcasted from each stage of the Tour of Britain, with both ITV4 and the BIKE Channel UK showing the race live.
