It All Comes Down To A Bunch Sprint Along The Knavesmire In The Inaugural Women’s Tour De Yorkshire!
York 80Km Closed Circuit Road Race.
The inaugural Women’s Tour De Yorkshire cycling road race took place on a closed four lap, 20 kilometre circuit. Open to Elite, First, Second and Third cat ladies, gave opportunity, for the girls to ride safely through the streets of York. Looping out beyond the A64 to the East, before returning, the race completed the circuit on the Knavesmire near the Race Course entrance.
Likened to a Belgium Kermesse by the girls, rather than a City Centre Criterium. The technical at times course, twisted & turned through the streets of York, passing several well known landmarks, through ancient City Walls, and over cobbled roads, before entering the more exposed windier sections outside of town.
Flagged off by British Cycling President, Bob Howden, the Race got underway at 10.30am by an eighty strong field of riders.
Crowds had already built-up around the City streets, and the race got off to an aggressive start. There were many attacks on the back-end of the circuit, but each and every one were brought back on the run into the City Centre. At times the peloton were very strung-out, that showed the pace indeed was quite high averaging nearly 40kmph. Wiggle Honda’s Eileen Roe had several goes escaping the clutches of a strong Pearl Izumi – Sports Tours Int’l Team and the Team USN squads. They all had goes of firing riders off the front. But as the final lap approached, it became clear that it would end with a bunch sprint.
Approaching the final kilometres, last minute efforts were made to escape, but lead-out trains were formed for the Sprinters, and it was a case of “surfing the wheels” (Louise Mahѐ), and picking the best line or wheel to come off!
In the end, IKON Mazda’s Louise Mahѐ lunged across the line firstly, followed very closely by Wiggle Honda’s Eileen Roe and Pearl Izumi Sports Tours Int’l’s Katie Curtis in a big bunch sprint. Fifty-seven girls completed the race.
Louise Mahe speaks to CyclingShorts.cc writer Chris Maher after her win at the inaugural Women’s Tour de Yorkshire 2015.
I spoke to Louise Mahѐ after the race: “It was a fast race from the off” “At times when you look back, the whole bunch were strung-out, so you knew the pace was high”, “I left it quite late, found a gap, and went for it”. Louise said that she liked the circuit. It was flat, so you race hard. She enjoyed the closed circuit, and said the crowds were awesome!
On Twitter Louise posted: “Blimey, I won a bike race! Thanks for the support everyone”
I spoke to Eileen Row after the race: “It was a really good race”, “It was a really aggressive actually, the race!”, “Unfortunately it did come down to a bunch sprint”, “I was in several breaks that went up the road, that never really came to much up the back-end of the circuit”.
Being Yorkshire born and bred, I may be slightly biased, but this is the most beautiful and definitely the best county in the UK… All four corners of the county will be putting on a show for the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire this weekend. We can look forward to some of the best British and international cycling talent taking to the roads over three challenging stages. Today the cycling kicked off with an outing from Bridlington to Scarborough.
The stage got underway in seaside town of Bridlington the route passed through spectacular coastal scenery and the iconic North York Moors landscapes with no less than five King of the Mountains (KoM) peaks and two sprint opportunities along the course.
The teams rode along the Flamborough Head Heritage Coast before turning away from the coast into the North York Moors National Park, through Dalby Forest hitting the first KoM of the day at the Cote de Dalby Forest and this first test seemed to take it’s toll on some of the riders. Sprinter Marcel Kittel became unhitched from the main peloton and found himself in a small group as he zipped up his top to descend the climb. His face said it all, but he wasn’t the only rider disliking the Yorkshire hills.
Team Sky were dominant from early on in the race after reeling in a breakaway that held a lead of 3 minutes. Sky controlled the peloton until they hit the recently drizzled roads of Egton and Grosmont. The Team Sky train appeared not to adjust their descending style to match the wet conditions and slid across the road at the start of the drop.
In doing so they took out a number of other teams riders behind them. Ben Swift of Team Sky went down heavily and subsequently had to retire from the race. The riding became a little more tentative as teams got themselves back on each others wheels. The lack of race radio did mean riders had to be more team aware, though none of the riders up front would have known of the retirements behind them. Team Sky were now down to 4 riders on the front of the peloton and less able to control the situation. One rider took advantage of the chaos at the front, on the penultimate slope of the day; the Cote de Briggswath, the Europcar rider Perrig Quemeneur went out on his own and made the most of it by mopping us some more sprint points.
The race took a spectacular journey back to the coast at Whitby. By the time they reached Robin Hood’s Bay Quemeneur had been caught and a sizeable group of around 15 riders including; Voeckler, Sanchez and two Team Sky riders. Steve Cummings got caught out by the break and furiously tried to get up to them to no avail. Over the crest of the Cote de Robin Hood’s Bay 15 had been whittled down to 5 riders with a lead of over 30 seconds, they had over a minute back to the peloton. The splinter group contained some dangerous riders; Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Samuel Sanchez (BMC Racing Team), Stephane Rossato (Cofidis Solutions Credits), Philip Diegnan & Lars-Petter Nordhaug (both Team Sky). Initially the two French riders (Voeckler and Rossato) seemed to work together to test and attempt to break the Sky riders.
The race ended in the ultimate sprint finish on the seafront at Scarborough, the five riders went down to the line with Team Sky using team tactics with a one-two attack. Rossetto showed he had more in the tank starting the sprint lead out, he was overtaken by Nordhaug with Voeckler on his tail. A thrilling end to what looks to be an unpredictable Tour.
Perrig Quemeneur took the Pink Climbers Jersey and the Grey Most Aggressive Rider which is voted for by the public via Twitter, unfortunately for Eddie Dunbar he won the vote but was caught up in the crash and had to retire. So the jersey passed to Quemeneur.
The 2015 Cheshire Classic Women’s Road Race Organised by Weaver Valley Cycling Club. Official race film by CyclingShorts.cc. Presented by Heather Bamforth.
CyclingShorts.cc journalist Heather Bamforth interviews Dame Sarah Storey of Team Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International after her win at the 2015 Cheshire Classic.
Race organised by Weaver Valley Cycling Club.
A CyclingShorts.cc / ChapeauChapeau.com Production
Filmed & edited by Zoe Opal East & Mary Broome
Produced by Anna Magrath
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It All Comes Down To A Bunch Sprint Along The Knavesmire In The Inaugural Women’s Tour De Yorkshire!
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