South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)

Thousands Line Streets of Kent to Watch Tour of Britain

4 September 2006

Thousands of spectators lined the route of one of the biggest events to hit the South East this year when the Tour of Britain cycle race arrived in Kent on Saturday (2 September).

Over 70 top cyclists made their way through the countryside of Kent starting from Rochester Castle Gardens and onto Canterbury as the county hosted the penultimate stage (five) of the national race.

Teams of international cyclists had already cycled through Scotland, the North West, Yorkshire and the West Midlands. The final stage, after Medway to Canterbury, saw them head for London – the route in total was 516 miles.

The winner of the Kent stage was Francesco Chicchi for the QuickStep-Innergetic Team in a time of 4h24'42".

As one of the main sponsors of the event, SEEDA's Board Member Sarah Hohler was given the prestigious role of presenting the yellow jersey to the over all leader at the end of the race. This went to Martin Pedersen of Team CSS who then went on to win the competition as a whole.

Find out more about the Tour of Britain at www.tourofbritain.co.uk.