Stage 2: 174.9km Cranbrook to Barnstaple
The second stage of the Tour of Britain today was a particularly difficult one. The peloton were climbing almost immediately, cresting a category 2 climb at only 6.7km in, and then were up and down all day before a final cat 1 climb with just over 20km remaining. Though the finish was flat, the tough parcours meant this stage looked a perfect opportunity for a breakaway to survive to the line. For this reason, the formation of the escape was not as clean cut as it had been yesterday. From the off, all the Continental teams were visible on the front, with the likes of Walker (Wiggins), Baylis (ONE Pro) and McEvoy (Madison Genesis) all riding hard alongside former Wiggins rider Scott Davies (Dimension Data) in an attempt to establish a gap, but the peloton were simply not letting them go. Davies, Baylis and McEvoy took the points atop the first KoM climb, but held only the smallest of margins. Whilst the break yesterday had gone within 5km, it took a gruelling 16km for a proper break to form today, when Rowsell (Madison Genesis), Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF), Meyer (Mitchelton Scott), Teggart (Wiggins) and the ever-present Davies eventually made a gap stick.
When the break goes early, it’s relatively easy for the Conti teams to get in it, but it takes a much more organised effort when the process is so drawn out. It’s often too hard and fast for one rider to stay aggressive on the front for so many kilometres, so teams have to adopt an almost ‘tag team’ type approach, keeping several riders up front to cover different moves. Madison Genesis and Wiggins employed this tactic from the start, always having more than one rider in contention (McEvoy and Rowsell, Walker and Teggart, plus others), so it’s no surprise that they were the two teams that were successful in infiltrating what proved to be the winning break. Madison have been arguably the strongest Continental team all season, whilst Wiggins are definitely here with a point to proves (and perhaps contracts or sponsorship to secure) so I would expect to see these two teams especially feature heavily throughout the race.
With a healthy lead built up, the breakaway’s attention now turned to the intermediate sprints and climbs. Neither jersey wearer had made the front group, and there were plenty of points available on the road to prompt a change in classification leader, so there was a big incentive to chase those primes. Despite being in World Tour company, 22-year-old Matthew Teggart had a superb day out, winning every intermediate sprint to claim the red sprints jersey. Teggart has followed a primarily European programme this season with Wiggins, picking up a handful of top-10s including 2nd of a stage at the Tour Alsace, and this development path has clearly been of great value as the Irishman looked strong in today’s break. Davies, another product of Wiggins’ development efforts, repeated Teggart’s feat in the KoM competition, taking maximum points on all 3 climbs to take the jersey from teammate Dlamini.
Going into the final 30km of the stage, the breakaway (minus Teggart, who had been distanced) still had over 3 minutes’ advantage, which prompted some movement from the chasing peloton. EF Education First’s Hugh Carthy launched an attack in the run-up to the final climb, and it was Matt Holmes of Madison Genesis who followed his wheel. Holmes is a proficient climber, who finished an impressive 5th overall at last year’s Tour de Yorkshire, but injury has put him out of contention of many big races this year. He’s been steadily coming back to form this summer though, and being able to follow the wheel of rising talent Carthy really highlights Holmes’ ability. Though it almost feels like he’s been around forever, Matt Holmes is only 24, and certainly has a lot more impressive performances ahead of him.
Despite being chased by some impressive names behind, Meyer and Tonelli of the original breakaway held a slender gap to the line, with Meyer edging out the Italian to take the win and the points jersey, whilst Tonelli went into the race lead by virtue of yesterday’s placings. Young British talents Connor Swift (Madison Genesis), Ethan Hayter (Great Britain), Tom Pidcock (Wiggins) and Max Stedman (Canyon Eisberg) all did incredibly well to come home in the 3rd group on the line, only 39 seconds down after a really testing stage that saw their team mates finish over 10 minutes down. Hayter’s 16th was another really good result, on a wholly different finish to how he had sprinted to 7th yesterday, proving his ability lies in more than one discipline.
Tomorrow the race heads to Bristol to take in 128km around Bath and the surrounding areas, before looping back into the city. Though tomorrow is in some ways “flatter” than the first two stages, a category 1 climb with 9km to go and a kick up to the line will likely disrupt any plans for a sprint, and could bode well for an opportunist or a puncheur from the Continental ranks. Of course we’ll be looking out for the Continental teams in the break tomorrow, as always, but I definitely think we’ll see someone figure in the finale too.
Teams summary
JLT-Condor
• Best finisher: Edmund Bradbury (24th), +0:39
• Best on GC: Edmund Bradbury (27th), +0:49
Madison Genesis
• Erick Rowsell in the break
• Best finisher: Connor Swift (15th), +0:39
• Best on GC: Matt Holmes (25th), +0:49
Canyon Eisberg
• Best finisher: Max Stedman (22nd), +0:39
• Best on GC: Max Stedman (23rd), +0:49
ONE Pro Cycling
• Best finisher: Emils Liepins (40th), +3:22
• Best on GC: Emils Liepins (38th), +3:22
Wiggins
• Matthew Teggart in the break, now leads the sprints classification
• Joey Walker abandons
• Best finisher: Tom Pidcock (21st), +0:39
• Best on GC: Tom Pidcock (21st), +0:49
Great Britain
• Best finisher: Ethan Hayter (16th), +0:39
• Best on GC: Ethan Hayter (12th), +0:49
#TOB1DA
The other ‘alternative’ story of this year’s Tour of Britain is the challenge undertaken by Brother Managing Director Phil Jones and endurance cyclist James Golding, who are riding the entire course one day before the pro peloton. Brother are a company who are hugely important to the British scene, supporting several teams and races, and Jones is now gving back even more by trying to raise £50,000 for the Dave Rayner Fund, a fund that supports aspiring British road cyclists. Read more here, donate here and follow Phil and James’s progress here.
Words by Tilda 