The Tour of Britain in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire- The latest race news, route and road closure information

“King Tut went to see this event, and I was impressed with how well organised it was.

Nevertheless, I was surprised at just how many people did not seem to realise that the race was happening and that certain roads would be closed at certain times. The Tour was highly publicised in the media, but still there seemed to be a lot of people who were caught completely unawares.

King Tut even saw one motorist – who must have been in his mid sixties – vigorously remonstrating with a Policeman about not being allowed to drive through a road closure at the bottom of Cromer road. The chap made me so angry that I asked the Gods to smite him with a plague of boils, but they told me that with his Jackal-like face, and the fact that he was driving a Fiat Mulitpla, the man in question was probably cursed enough already.”

“It's once a year. Stop moaning. It's got to be good for the area.”

“RaymondC1 - What a muppet! The Tour of Britain, in its previous incarnation The Milk Race, passed through or finished in Stoke-on-Trent several times during the 70s, 80s and early 90s.

Try doing your history.”

“What is it with Stokies moaning about everything. It's only for half a day once a year for goodness sake and it really does put Stoke-on-Trent on the map. I managed to park in the Potteries Centre car park and to walk around easily by timing my journey. I also managed to get along Old Hall Street even though the crowds filled the pavements - by not going there until the race and the presentation had finished. The only problem I found was people with bikes taking them behind the barriers in Old Hall Street rather than locking them up and walking.”

“Some truely amazingly idiotic comments about the inconvenience the cycling caused. Unbelieveable”

“It's always going to be a tricky balancing act to host something like this whilst keeping disruption to a minimum, and the cost of holding the event would appear to be an extravagance given the financial climate. There are certainly issues that need to be addressed, and would agree that having it finish in Hanley is challenging to say the least. I guess the problem is that it's nigh on impossible to keep everyone happy all of the time.

However, one of the things that has always held Stoke-on-Trent back is it's rather provincial attitude. Most of us rightly bemoan the fact that The Potteries often get overlooked and miss out on the investment that other cities get, but, when we get the chance to have a world class sporting event pass through our area, some of us choose to focus on the negatives rather than the positives. Having the Tour of Britain begin and end in our city is generally good exposure (the helicopter shots of Trentham Gardens looked fabulous on the ITV4 highlights) and even though there is no absolute evidence that confirms a quid pro quo connection between the two, proving that the city can successfully organise and support something like this will cast a positive light on us.

As for the event itself, it was a fantastic days racing with some big crowds along the route. I was lucky enough to catch it as it passed along Barlaston Old Road, then once again as it went up Gun Hill, and I got to see two Grand Tour winners, a multiple Olympic Gold medallist, and a World Champion. And it didn't cost me a penny.

So congratulations to all of those who organised and took part in the event. It's not perfect, and it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I for one will be hoping that we see it again in 2013.”

“Sport in itself is good but when it starts closing Roads as the Tour of Britain does do in Stoke-on-Trent then Question must asked the cost of this sport, not only for Trade but also the Policing of the said event

it is without doubt, that the Tour Of Britain brings no trade into the City nor does it do anything for this City in General, it is an event that we in Stoke-on-Trent could do well without.

We have never had the Tour of Britain in the 70's, 80's or 90's we don't need it now, I say ban the Tour of Britain for the Stoke-on-Trent Area once and for all.”

“re. D from Stoke, they came through Lyme Kiln bank at just after two and the back markers were only about ten minutes behind that's not school closing time and also any school that was on the cycle route all the pupils were on the road side cheering on the race.”

“Tend to agree with lagu2
They had closed off some of potteries way, so people who were heading to fenton diverted to limkiln... limkiln cannot cope with this kind of congestions, bad enough on a normal monday-friday!

We were sitting in traffic for 45mins!!
Added to the fact that they hit limkiln at school rush time... chaos”

“While i think that it is a good thing to have a sporting event like this in stoke on trent there are still major problems with access to the city centre for everyday people going about there business. As we discovered today it was almost impossible for us to get home without waiting for the crossing points to be opened, people might say well it's only 2 or 3 times a year but that is not the point. surley the route of the starting point and ending point can be moved to accomerdate both cyclist and general people. we saw a young monther trying to get down old hall street with a push chair and she was struggling like mad, not only with other people trying to pass on a pavement which was only about 3 feet wide due to the barriers but also with people on the bikes using this as well. The city centre itself was dead ( more than nornal ) and traders where complaing that people just could not get to them or staying away cause of the access problems. these problems go on time after time and still nothing is done about it, i am not saying get rid of these events but have a system is place that the sport event, people and local traders do not lose out the the main attraction of the cycling today and create it so the whole of the city centre can take part and not just one overcrowded, no access part of the city centre which affects everyone.”