This year the Tour of Britain will celebrate its 10th anniversary; once again there will be a Devon stage and there are plenty of big names to look out for on this year’s tour, writes Mark Briggs.

The country’s largest free-to-watch sporting event will begin in Scotland on Sunday September 15 with eight stages along the way. This year is supposed to be better than ever, with a number of high profile names and teams entering the event. The names include Tour de France Champion Chris Froome and his team mate Richie Porte, Britain’s high-profile sprinter Mark Cavendish and cyclists from Team Movistar such as Spain’s Alejandro Valverde.

Devon has been a part of the Tour since 2008 with many great races over the years, such as in 2009 when Geoffroy Lequatre ultimately made the move which won him the tour and the one in 2011 when sunny Exmouth witnessed an exciting sprint finish.

This year is no different and Sidmouth will be where a Stage 6 gets underway at 11am on Friday September 20. The stage will head towards Honiton, then up towards Tiverton where a sprinters points classification takes place, following that they head southwards to Exeter for a category two climb and another sprint classification, the cyclists go up another two climbs before the big finish in Haytor where the biggest of all climbs awaits the riders, at around 2-3pm.

This year should be yet another step forward for the organizers of the event, who see their race go from stride to stride. This year once again is eagerly anticipated by fans and the Tour of Britain would like to remind people that anyone can watch the race.