Rivington

Rivington is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Chorley, sitting at the foot of Rivington Pike on the edge of the West Pennine Moors. Lancashire County Council's announcement names a King of the Mountains ascent over Rivington, alongside the one in the Trough of Bowland, which places a categorised climb late in the Lancashire section rather than only in the fells.

Rivington Pike itself stands at 1,191 feet, or 363 metres, the most westerly high point of Winter Hill, with the Pike Tower a prominent landmark below the summit. Below that lie the Rivington Terraced Gardens, about 45 acres of steep west-facing slope laid out between 1906 and 1922 largely by Thomas Mawson for Lord Leverhulme, now Grade II listed. They sit within Lever Park, roughly 160 hectares of gardens, lakes and woodland given by William Lever in 1902 and legally protected as public open space with free access.

That combination, a hard climb and a large free park at the bottom of it, is unusually good for a bike race. It also means Rivington will be busy. As with every other climb on this stage, the formal category, the exact road and the closure times are not published yet, and the announcements that matter will come from A.S.O., the police and the councils nearer the day.