Tour of Britain: Peter Kennaugh excited to make long-awaited debut
By Matt Westby
Last Updated: 05/09/15 6:50pm
Peter Kennaugh says it will be "special" to make his long-awaited debut at the Aviva Tour of Britain while wearing the British national road-race champion’s jersey.
The 26-year-old Manxman is part of a six-man Team Sky line-up for the eight-day race, which starts in Wales on Sunday and ends with a sprint stage in central London on Sunday, September 13.
Despite having been a professional for almost six seasons, Kennaugh has never raced the Tour of Britain before and also missed out on Team Sky's squads for last year's Tour de France Grand Depart in Yorkshire and the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire this May.
He has a good track record on home soil, having won the national road race in each of the past two years, and is now hoping to continue that success at the Tour of Britain.
He told teamsky.com: "It's crazy really. Ben [Swift] has ridden it seven or eight times, but I've never done it. I can't wait to ride it. All through the boom in British cycling since the 2008 Olympics, I've only ever raced the nationals here for Team Sky. Racing in Britain is on such a big stage right now and it's going to be great.
"It's an honour to race in that jersey wherever I am, but obviously being a British champion in a British race makes it even more special.
"There is no pressure on me and no set game plan. I'm going to try and stay up there on GC [general classification] for the first couple of days, which will give us options as a team, and if I do lose time after that, I'll be there to work for my team-mates."
Kennaugh will be joined in Team Sky's line-up by Swift, Ian Stannard, Andrew Fenn, Wout Poels and Elia Viviani, but it has not yet been decided who will be the leader.
Kennaugh is an all-rounder who should be well suited to the rolling terrain of the Tour of Britain, but he admits he does not know the route well.
He added: "I haven't researched it in massive detail - just what is in the road book. The stages are pretty long, and the British roads always make for hard riding. In Italy and Spain you can float along fairly easily on the smooth roads, but over here they're narrower, more twisty, and grippy.
"We're accumulating a lot of climbing each day as well. There's obviously no mountains, but it's up and down all the time and that will take its toll. Another factor is that there's only six riders per team - that makes it for more open racing, and when you factor the weather in as well it all combines for a really hard race."
