Although, in recent years, Great Britain has produced many champion cyclists, such as Chris Hoy and Bradley Wiggins, the country's main road race (run officially for the first time in 1945, though unofficial events were held beforehand) has not, perhaps, attracted the same attention and prestige as the Tour de France or the Giro d'Italia - a situation that is now changing.

Like many events, it has found itself, over the years, in need of commercial sponsorship, and from 1958-1993, the most frequent sponsor was the Milk Marketing Board, although in later years this was interspersed with Kelloggs, the cereal manufacturer. This situation carried on for so long, that many people began to refer to the race simply as the Milk Race. The last winner of the trophy under that name was the English competitor Chris Lillywhite. Readers may be interested to know that for a period in the 1980s, football's League Cup (currently the Carabao Cup) was also sponsored by the Milk Marketing Board and known as the Milk Cup.

At the start of the new millennium, there was a pause in the race, and when it returned in 2004, it adopted its new name of the Tour of Britain.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org