The experience encouraged the BLRC to run a bigger race, the Victory Cycling Marathon, to celebrate the end of the war in 1945.

It ran from Brighton to Glasgow in five stages and was won by Robert Batot of France, with Frenchmen taking six of the top 10 places, the mountains competition and best team.

Chas Messenger, a BLRC official and historian, said: "No one had ever put on a stage race in this country, other than the Southern Grand Prix, and even fewer people had even seen one.

So raw were they that Jimmy Kain (the organiser) even wrote to the Auto-Cycle Union – the body for motorcycle racing – and the flags used by them were taken as a guide to what was needed.

"[5] The writer Roger St Pierre said: The BLRC was not recognised by the world governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale and so it recruited its French riders from another rebel organisation, the communist Fédération Sportive et Gymnastique du Travail, using French café-owners in Soho, London, as their link.

Orford met the MMB's publicity officer, Reg Pugh, at the board's headquarters in Thames Ditton, west of London.

So the Milk Race, the Tour of Britain, was born, starting in 1958 and lasting for 35 years, the longest cycle sponsorship in the UK ever.

The event is organised by Race Director Tony Doyle and sponsored by the Dairy Council and the Milk Marketing Forum.

It took place over five days between Wednesday 1 – Sunday 5 September, organised by Surrey-based SweetSpot Group in collaboration with the BCF (British Cycling Federation).

The tour climaxed with a 45 miles (72 km) criterium in London, where an estimated 100,000 spectators saw a long break by Bradley Wiggins last until the penultimate lap, before Enrico Degano of Team Barloworld took the sprint on the line.

[16] The 2005 race was run as a UCI 2.1 category in six stages starting in Glasgow on Tuesday 30 August and finishing in London on Sunday 4 September.

French rider Romain Feillu won overall by just 0.49 seconds over Spaniard (and stage four winner in Bradford) Adrián Palomares.

As per compatriot Romain Feillu in 2007, overall champion Geoffroy Lequatre claimed the victory despite not winning a single stage of the Tour.

Boasson Hagen was the dominant overall winner, claiming a record four-consecutive stage victories (in Peebles, Blackpool, Stoke-on-Trent and Bideford) en route to the title.

In his first season as a pro, Katusha–Alpecin rider Ben Swift memorably took his maiden career victory ahead of team-mate Filippo Pozzato in Yeovil.

Albasini laid the foundations of his victory by winning in Swansea on stage three; that day's route included two ascents of the city's famed Constitution Hill, a 300-metre cobbled climb that averages a gradient of 19.3%.

[19] Team Sky made their race debut in the 2010 Tour, winning stage two in Stoke-on-Trent with New Zealander Greg Henderson.

[22] This edition of the race outlined the event's growing stature on the international cycling calendar, as Thor Hushovd became only the second reigning UCI road world champion to win a stage of the race wearing the iconic Rainbow Jersey when he triumphed in Caerphilly on stage four.

The Manxman won the opening stage in Dumfries and London circuit race finale; he also set up HTC–Highroad team-mate Mark Renshaw to win in Exmouth on day five.

[23] With the British public's interest in cycling high off the back of Bradley Wiggins' victory in that summer's Tour de France and the London 2012 Olympic Games, the final two hours of each stage during the 2012 race were shown live on ITV4 and Eurosport.

Riding for the Great Britain national team, future Vuelta a España winner Simon Yates – then aged just 21 – took a famous victory.

Edvald Boasson Hagen made more history at the 2015 Tour of Britain when he became the first rider to win the modern edition for a second time.

London again hosted the final stage, however the Tour used a new circuit centred around Regent Street and Piccadilly as opposed to its traditional Whitehall loop, versions of which featured in seven editions of the race between 2004 and 2014.

The 2016 Tour also proved to be the last professional race of Bradley Wiggins' cycling career before he retired from the sport.

In another move that emphasised the race's status on the international cycling calendar, ITV4 broadcast each stage live in full for the first time.

Outlining the event's innovative nature, the race's first-ever team time trial stage took place on day five of the Tour.

Together with compatriot Dylan Groenewegen, van der Poel won three stages of the race, including the Greater Manchester finale on day eight – one that started in Altrincham and visited all 10 boroughs of the metropolitan county before finishing along Deansgate.

The race would have formed part of the UCI ProSeries, comprising the second tier of the men's elite road cycling events, launched by the sport's governing body for 2020.

[44] The men's Tour of Britain racereturned to its usual September format after the previous year's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[53] In May, Lloyds Bank agreed with British Cycling to become title partner of both the men's and women's Tours, a deal reportedly worth around £20 million over five years.