THE eyes of the nation descended on Tavistock yesterday (Wednesday) to watch the world's top cyclists stream out of the town and embark on what has been regarded as one of the toughest stages of the Tour of Britain.

Cycling fever took over the town as crowds filled the streets to wave off the 96 professional cyclists from across the globe as they geared up to travel 109 miles to Glastonbury, including the tough Dartmoor terrain on stage five of the tour.

The town was buzzing as early as 5am yesterday morning as Tour of Britain crews arrived to set up the site in preparation for the race, and crowds of spectators were already forming and being entertained by All Out Performing Arts group and a BMX display by the UK's top elite trials rider Andrei Burton.

Before stage five of the race took off, British competitor Simon Richardson from team Sigma Sport Specialised told the Times: 'The race has been good so far, I'm lying 12th overall. It's been really great, but it's a shame about the weather — it's been pretty much raining the whole way so far.

'Yesterday (stage four) was a really hard day, it didn't really shape the race as much as the day before. Going across Dartmoor today could have a real effect on the race if it's windy. It doesn't look too bad at the moment but if it is, it could be difficult.'

Taking the stage win at the previous day's race ending in Teignmouth, was Wout Poels from the Vaconsoleil team. However Michael Albasini of HTC Columbia held on to the yellow jersey and also took the lead in the points jersey competition.

Race organisers said Tavistock had the best turnout for the start of a stage for this year's event.

The compere for the event said: 'Tavistock is definitely the noisiest start.'

Setting off on stage five, a huge cheer resonated around the town as the mass of world, Olympic and Commonwealth champions were led out of Bedford Square following a procession involving representatives of the town and Tavistock Primary School pupils on vintage bikes.

Yesterday morning's events followed on from a party in the town centre on Tuesday evening to celebrate the biggest professional cycle event in the UK coming to Tavistock.

The Tavy Tour Party saw thousands of people flood Bedford Square and surrounding areas to celebrate the town being involved with the tour, with many dancing away to live music from local bands.

The crowd roared as Tavistock's own top ten artist Seth Lakeman took to the stage and captivated the audience with his furious fiddle playing, and Mad Dog Mcrea kept the crowd bouncing as the bar ran dry.

Liz Sanders and her husband Garth said they had a great evening. Liz said: 'We enjoyed it very much. It is a very good thing for Tavistock. It was great to see it so busy — we didn't leave until 10.20pm and there were still lots of people there. What we liked about it was that there were older people and babies in prams, it was a real family event.'

Garth asked: 'Can we have it every year? I really enjoyed it and I'm 70. It was well organised and if we could do it once a year and let it grow, it would be great.'

Those who weren't occupied by booming bass-lines were tasting the delicacies at the food festival in the town hall and having a go at the various amusements along Plymouth Road.

The whole programme was masterminded by Tavistock's Tour of Britain local events committee, which has put months worth of work into making sure the event was a success.

James Clapp, Tour of Britain event co-ordinator for Tavistock, said there were around 5,000 people in the square on Tuesday night.

He said: 'It went off without a hitch. The rain stopped, it was very good, very loud and we didn't have any complaints.

'We're hoping Tavistock could host a finish for the Tour of Britain in the future.'

Highlights from stage five of the tour were shown on ITV4 yesterday evening, but can be seen again today (Thursday) at 1pm.