The gruelling eight-day race will get underway outside the spectacular Rochdale Town Hall at 10.30am with a festival of activities taking place throughout the morning to celebrate the fantastic event coming to the borough.
Saturday 11 September will see 96 of the world’s best cyclists, including Britain’s Team Sky, gather in Rochdale town centre for the start of the Tour of Britain.
Following Britain's cycling success at the 2008 Olympics, the sport is at an all-time high and research shows that it’s the second fastest growing sport and past time in Britain.
Team Sky, Britain’s newly-formed professional team, have taken part in the Tour de France and will be taking part in the Tour, giving this year’s race extra excitement for the home audience.
The 1,228km Tour has been declared the toughest in seven years, designed to deliver a worthy overall winner to join the ranks of previous yellow jerseys such as Edvald Boasson Hagen, Geoffroy Lequatre, Romain Feillu and Nick Nuyens.
The race takes places across eight days, starting in Rochdale and finishing in London on 18 September.
The eight stages are:
• Stage 1 - 11 September: Rochdale to Blackpool (131km)
• Stage 2 - 12 September: Stoke-on-Trent to Stoke-on-Trent (160km)
• Stage 3 - 13 September: Newton to Swansea (150km)
• Stage 4 - 14 September: Minehead to Teignmouth (171km)
• Stage 5 - 15 September: Tavistock to Glastonbury (176km)
• Stage 6 - 16 September: King’s Lynn to Great Yarmouth (189km)
• Stage 7 - 17 September: Bury St Edmunds to Colchester (151km)
• Stage 8 - 18 September: The TfL London Stage (100km)

The final day of racing will see the riders take on a brand new race circuit in the London borough of Newham - the host borough for the 2012 London Olympic and Para-Olympic games, where the winner of the 2010 Tour of Britain will be crowned.
Media Spotlight on Rochdale
For the third successive year, coverage of the race will be televised on ITV4 with an hour long nightly highlights show of all the action between 7pm and 8pm, with repeats the following day, putting Rochdale in the cycling spotlight.
The Prostate Cancer Charity is the 2010 Tour’s charity partner.
To find out more, go to page the Tour of Britain home