TOUGH MT. WELLINGTON START

FOR TASSIE BIKE TOUR

Hobart will host the start of the 2011 Caterpillar Underground Mining Tour of Tasmania with a fiercely-tough innovative 18km teams time trial up Mt. Wellington on Tuesday, October 4.

Teams of up to eight riders each will take off at two-minute intervals in a race against the clock from the Cascade Brewery in Strickland Avenue and climb 1271 metres before finishing at The Pinnacle lookout.

Earlier, the anticipated 130-strong field will kick-off the six-day tour in colorful style with a 5km parade, under police control, from the Wrest Point Casino in Sandy Bay Road to the brewery.

An excited  Hobart Lord Mayor Alderman Rob Valentine said today the parade and the teams time trial would provide an "amazing spectacle" for the city.

"With its magnificent all-aspect views, Mt. Wellington is a world-class tourism destination and is a fitting venue for the start of such a highly-regarded event as the Tour of Tasmania," Alderman Valentine said.

"The tour's popularity and respect grows each year and I am sure the cyclists will never forget the experience of climbing Mt. Wellington."

The 543km tour, now in its seventh year in its current format, will be raced in 10 stages from October 4 to Sunday October 9.

Tour director John Craven said the race, backed by Events Tasmania and seven municipal councils, shaped as the toughest in the event's impressive history.

He said it was the first time the tour would visit the southern region after being conducted mainly in the north and north-west for the past six years.

In other course highlights ( see THE COURSE below):

• The Derwent Valley and Central Highlands municipalities will host the second and third stages, dominated by a 79km road race from Hamilton to Bronte Park, with two montrous category one climbs.
• Retention of the traditional 42km Shaw Contracting Village Green criterium on day three in Westbury, a popular Meander Valley Council event with local school-children.
• The classical 78.5km stage from Ulverstone to Penguin, via the stunningly-beautiful Gunns Plains, to be raced for the fifth straight year through the Central Coast municipality.
• Recreational and Corporate cyclists to be given the opportunity to ride the testing 75km Burnie-West Moorville stage on Saturday, October 8.
• The tour is to finish at Devonport's Mersey Bluff on Sunday, October 9, with a 51.6km kermesse over 12 laps of a 4.3km waterfront and residential circuit.

Craven said the corporate ride would be the centrepiece of Burnie's two-stage involvement in the tour. Entry via this link

Click here for information on: BURNIE CORPORATE RIDE

Burnie Sports and Events acting CEO Brett Whiteley said it was imperative that Burnie placed a unique stamp on the event and added a local flavor to the statewide cycling tour.

"The day will commence with a criterium in the CBD, commencing on Burnie's beautiful waterfront at 10.30 am, and will be enhanced by the corporate challenge," he said.

The Tour of Tasmania is fast developing a reputation as a breeding ground for future stars, with Cameron Meyer, Ritchie Porte, Bernard Sulzberger, former British road champion Kristian House and New Zealand's Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Gordon McCauley among the winners.

The tour is the final round of the four-race Scody Cup, Australia's premier domestic road cycling series.

The cup will kick-off with the Lakes Oil Tour of Gippsland, Tour of the Murray River, culminating with Tassie tour, see details here on website calendar.

An accumulative points and prizemoney system operates on the series, founded in 1996, to produce an overall Scody Cup winner.

The Tour of Tassie will be preceded on Sunday, October 2, by the Elgas Launceston to New Norfolk Classic. See calendar.

The tour and the 208km classic are part of Cycling Australia's 2011 National Road Teams competition.

THE COURSE

( as September 21, 2011 )

Podium 2008, Ritchie Porte and Jack Bobridge

ENTRIES

You can enter online via

Please note: Tas Cycling does not take entries.

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