Evening start for Britannia

The 2012 edition of Tour Britannia will start with a new prologue stage on the evening of Wednesday June 6 ahead of the three-day classic race and rally tour.

Competitors will tackle a three-quarter mile-long special stage in the grounds of the event HQ, the Rudding Park Hotel in Harrogate after scrutineering and sign-on.

“This was too good an opportunity to miss,” said event director Alec Poole. “Our present thinking is that it will be a bit of fun and a useful shakedown ahead of the main event, so we have decided that it will not count towards the overall results.”