The British cycling interest is at an all-time high and that is reflected in the constant growth of the country's pinnacle event, Tour of Britain. This year the race has attracted its strongest line-up ever, and they will be challenge by the hardest route ever seen for the 8-day race. Nairo Quintana and local hero Bradley Wiggins use the race as their final preparation for the world championships while Mark Cavendish leads a strong list of sprinters which includes riders like Elia Viviani, Gerald Ciolek and Sacha Modolo. You can follow the next few stages on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

For some riders, the Tour of Britain is mainly preparation for the world championships but for others it's an important event in its own right. Bradley Wiggins' main objective may be the world time trial championships but the Brit has done nothing to hide that he aims at the overall win in the biggest big race in his home country. He has done recons of the key stages that include a 16km time trial, the well-known, tough stage to Caerphilly and the first ever summit finish. Riders like Dan Martin, Nairo Quintana, Giovanni Visconti, Thomas Löfkvist, Stefano Pirazzi, Francesco Bongiorno, Lucas Euser, Philip Deignan and Sergio Pardilla make sure that he will face hard competition on the climbs while Alex Dowsett who beat him in the long Giro time trial, will challenge him in the race against the clock. And finally, there's great expectation for the Yates brothers who both did well at the recent Tour de l'Avenir and now face the world elite on home soil.

The last two days have been for the GC riders but the weekend is one for the sprinters. The first of two battles between the fast finishers is expected at the end of today's 155km stage from Epsom to Gulidford which is destined to end in a bunch sprint. This certainly isn't due to the first part of the stage which contains two category 2 climbs and the brutally steep 21% Barhatch Lane which is in the 1st category. From the top of the latter, 104,9 mostly flat kilometres remain, and they provide the sprint teams with plenty of time to organize a pursuit and bring things back together for a finale that comes to its conclusion on an ascending finishing straight in Guildford.

Starting at 15.00 CEST you can follow the stage here.