Continuing our special #ThrowbackThursday themes this week we’re looking at some of the memorable breakaways from the past 11-years of the Aviva Tour of Britain, so check out this picture special and make sure you’re following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more.

Last week we had a #ThrowbackThursday to the bunch sprints of the race, but this week as the 2015 Aviva Tour of Britain (6-13 September) draws closer we’re looking at some of the memorable displays of attacking riding and breakaways.  Now sponsored by cycling magazine Rouleur, each day of the Aviva Tour of Britain sees the most aggressive rider on the stage win the Rouleur Combativity Award.

Starting us off and after his announcement that we was withdrawing from the Tour de France for treatment with cancer, everyone at Aviva Tour of Britain organisers would like to send their best wishes to Ivan Basso.  The then Cannondale rider is pictured below receiving the Rouleur Combativity Award in Stoke-on-Trent after 2012’s Stage Five.

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Basso didn’t win that day, instead it was Curacao national champion Marc de Maar winning from a subsequent break that formed on a very aggressive day’s racing in the Staffordshire Moorlands and Peak District.

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Both De Maar and Basso were constantly on the attack during the 2012 race, both featuring in another successful break on Stage Seven, won by Pablo Urtasun in Dartmouth.

The South West saw another successful, race changing, breakaway in 2008 on a very wet stage from Chard to Burnham-on-Sea.  Agritubel rider Emilien Berges won that day in Somerset, from a group that included Ian Stannard and Geraint Thomas, but the man who kicked the move off and went on to win that year’s Tour of Britain was Geoffroy Lequatre.  Here he is captured by Larry Hickmott emerging through the rain and mist in north Somerset.

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A year later and Edvald Boasson Hagen may have won four stages, but it was Thomas De Gendt and Kai Reus who won the hearts of British fans with their attacking riding.  De Gendt, pictured first, won both the King of the Mountains and Sprints jersey after being on breaks in half the days of the race.

Reus memorably held off the charging peloton into the finish on the banks of the River Tyne for the finish in NewcastleGateshead. That was the last time Britain’s biggest professional cycle race visited the North East, but for fans in the area they can look forward to two stages of the 2015 Aviva Tour of Britain on Wednesday 9 and Thursday 10 September.

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Reus isn’t the only rider to win from a break, a year later both Wout Poels in Teignmouth and Marco Frapporti in Glastonbury took stage wins by going on the attack, while 2011 saw An Post rider Gediminas Bagdonas take the win in Sandringham, Norfolk, after the peloton got their calculations wrong and six riders contested the finish. You can see the Lithuanian rider just pipping Ian Wilkinson at the top of the story.

Bringing us up-to-date at the 2014 race Matthias Brandle took two stage wins from breakaway moves, in Exeter and Hemel Hempstead, but it was his companion on the latter day – Alex Dowsett – who took the Yellow Jersey and won the overall Rouleur Combativity Award for the race.

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Next Thursday as the Tour de France draws to a close we'll be focussing on some of the stars of Le Tour who have then headed to Britain in September for the UK’s biggest annual cycle race.

Tweet your memories and any riders you think we should definitely be throwing back to using #tobmemories to @tourofbritain and we'll feature some of your tweets, and maybe even pictures too!