GREAT Britain’s Rio Olympic Games stars will be hitting the streets of Dursley, Uley, Wotton-under-Edge, Kingswood, Wickwar and Chipping Sodbury today when the Tour of Britain rumbles through the region.

Thousands of cycling fans are expected to be lining the streets of Gloucestershire as Stage Five of the race makes its’ way from the starting point at Aberdare in Wales to Bath.

Three Rio Olympic gold medallists – Tour de France winner Sir Bradley Wiggins, Wales’ Owain Doull and Italian track star Elia Viviani – were on the start line in Glasgow when the race began on Sunday, and there are another five Rio medallists in the line-up which includes the Manx Missile Mark Cavendish, who has won thirty stages of the Tour de France.

It passes up through the Forest of Dean towards Gloucester just after 1pm or so before swinging south and reaching Uley at around 1.55pm and then Dursley at around 2pm.

Some of the best places for fans to watch the race are likely to be on the Uley Road heading towards Uley and in the centre of Wotton-under-Edge, which the riders reach at approximately 2.10pm. They pass through Kingswood at 2.15pm before heading head off to Bath where the stage finishes.

And it has been a tough race already for the riders left of the 126 which started the Tour of Britain in Glasgow.

Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen won yesterday’s stage of the race from Denbigh to the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wells.

He just pipped Britain’s Dan McLay to the line in a sprint finish on the longest stage of the Tour, But it is Belgian ace Julien Vermote who will ride through Gloucestershire wearing the leader’s yellow jersey as he retained his place at the top of the General Classification standings by just six seconds from Britain’s Steve Cummings.

It was a tough day in the climbs of Wales for the sprinters in the peloton, though, with Cavendish being one of those to suffer at the back of the field.

However, today’s stage is set to be one where the fast men in the field will flourish. There are a couple of steep climbs to test them but, overall, it is mainly a flatish course.

After racing to the finish line in Bath, the Tour of Britain will go to the South West on Friday but return to Bristol on Saturday for an individual time trial around the city before it finishes in London on Sunday.