Chris Lawless became the first British winner of the Tour de Yorkshire after defending champion Greg Van Avermaet won an enthralling final stage in Leeds. Van Avermaet (CCC Team) forged clear with Lawless and his Team Ineos team-mate Eddie Dunbar as the 175km trek from Halifax neared its conclusion, and while it was Van Avermaet who sprinted to victory along The Headrow, Lawless came home in second to seal the biggest overall race win of his fledgling career.
A wall of sound greeted Alexander Kamp as he sprinted to a nail-biting victory on the third stage of the Tour de Yorkshire. Scarborough’s North Bay provided a dramatic finish location for the fifth year in succession, and as the waves crashed onto the coastline, a crescendo of noise also erupted as a vastly reduced peloton raced onto the closing straight.
Bedale was packed to the rafters to see Rick Zabel claim a stunning sprint victory on a hugely successful second day at the Tour de Yorkshire. By the time they reached Market Place it was Rick Zabel who hit top speed and romped to victory in front of some unbelievable Yorkshire support. The win was his first since 2015 and one which will live long in the memory.
The wet weather didn’t dampen the spirits on the opening stage of the 2019 Tour de Yorkshire as Jesper Asselman sprinted to a dramatic breakaway victory in Selby. The riders received a warm welcome in Doncaster’s Market Place at the start of the day and continued to be cheered along by the sizeable crowds who braved the elements to see the world’s best riders in action.
A wall of sound greeted Maximillian Walscheid as he sprinted to victory on a sizzling third stage of the Tour de Yorkshire. The crescent-shaped slopes of Scarborough’s North Bay provided a perfect natural amphitheatre for the fourth year in succession and tens of thousands of fans bathed in temperatures hotter than Palma, Paris and Tenerife to watch another dramatic finish unfurl.
Magnus Cort Nielsen couldn’t even hear himself breathe, such was the noise that greeted his mesmeric finish to win stage two of the 2018 Tour de Yorkshire. But if the Dane thought that finale in Ilkley was loud, the Yorkshire Bank and Yorkshire Bank Bike Libraries leader’s jersey holder hasn’t heard anything yet. History was made as the Tour finished on a summit for the first time, the brutal second stage from Barnsley finishing atop the Cow & Calf hill some 149km later.
Yorkshire has a new cycling hero – and Harry Tanfield can’t quite believe it. Never before had a local won a Tour de Yorkshire stage but with one superb breakaway and one big push to the line, this 23-year-old from Great Ayton had the Doncaster crowd rocking, to take stage 1 of the Tour de Yorkshire 2018.
Whilst the Pro Tour marches on at the Dauphine and the Tour de Suisse, the ‘other’ races just keep taking care of business. Take the 2.1 Delta Tour Zeeland in The Netherlands, the overall went to Garmin fast man, Tyler Farrar, but the strong man from Washington State didn’t have it all his own way; stage one saw a break through win for Skil’s 23 year old Aussie, Mitch Docker.
Amore & Vita, the sunshine and glamour of the Italian pro scene; scorching Australian road race championships; Girvan on a cold April Monday afternoon - Tom Southam has seen it all. We caught up with the man with esoteric musical taste on a cold February afternoon-after he'd just done three hours.
If we interviewed ‘Jamesie’ McCallum, we couldn’t very well neglect his friend and training partner, Britain’s most northerly professional rider – Wick’s Evan Oliphant. This will be his ninth professional season and his second with Raleigh.
Here at VeloVeritas whilst we have the utmost respect for John Archibald and his performances we didn’t seek any pre-Worlds interviews from him, his sister Katie, Neah Evans or Mark Stewart. We felt that the ‘they just need to turn up and ride then bring home the rainbow jerseys’ vibe was putting them under pressure – of which they would experience more than enough in the cauldron of Pruszkow. We let the dust settle post-Worlds, gave John a call and found how it went...
I know, I said I’d penned my last Tour piece for the year but I was in the area, there was a parking space and I thought; ‘I’ll have a quick look’ – and to my joy there it was, Monday’s L’Équipe in pride of place outside the International Newsagents.
A sad 40 minutes in the City Cafe ensued as I distilled les chiffres (that’s numbers) you need to make you the font of all knowledge on the club run.
The AIGCP (Association Internationnale des Groupes Cyclistes Professionnels), headed by Patrick Lefevere, formally complained to the Giro organisers today, regarding the hassle that pretty much everyone had in getting away from Sardinia, as Ed aluded to in his diary.