London – Edinburgh – London Audax Documentary

London Edinburgh London – Official Documentary from MadeGood.films on Vimeo.

 

There’s a great new documentary on the legendary, London Edinburgh London Audax ride coming out tomorrow (1st of June 2016) and is available to pre-order now on Vimeo.

MadeGood.films have given CyclingShorts.cc readers a discount, if you enter the following code ‘lelpresale’ at the checkout you will get 10% off when purchasing the film. This code will be valid until the end of June 2016.

The 54 minute film ‘London Edinburgh London‘ follows a group of cyclists from around the world on a remarkable feat of endurance. Join their ride up the length of Britain – from London to Edinburgh and back again – in under five days. Travelling over 1400km, a continuous distance far further than most of them had ever ridden before, our unlikely and eccentric heroes are not only tested physically but face the mental challenge, “can I push myself further, can I go one more day?”

 

Hipster Paradise – Spin London

GuardianSpin London

Brick Lane, in the heart of London’s East End and formerly known as Whitechapel Lane has always been a vibrant melting pot of a place and the earliest known record of its existence was on a woodcut map that was printed sometime during the 16th Century. It has been home to many communities of immigrants throughout its colourful history. Always a staging post to upward mobility. That mobility sometimes being slow, sometimes quite rapid. It has been home to French Huguenots, Ashkenazi Jews, and then Eastern European and Russian Jews in the early 20th century. It has been an epicentre of changing small scale industries centred around the clothing industry. Weaving, Leather making, Exquisite tailoring and the sweatshops of the rag trade. Home to Fagin and Jack The Ripper. It still retains its flavour of an amalgam of the new and tentative amidst wide boy small entrepreneurs. Shops momentarily flourishing displaying “vintage” clothing….aka, overpriced elegantly displayed jumble sales. The earnest Guardian reading fashionistas leaving their tatty chic boutiques to browse scratched vinyl records and other vendors tatty chic furniture. 35mm cameras that will never be used and they buy their fabulous Indian sub continent, Eastern European and Far Eastern street food lunches in cheap and plentiful non eco friendly styrofoam boxes.

The Truman Brewery’s disused premises opened above a now drained well in 1863 are themselves a tatty chic exhibition space in keeping with the area and ideal therefore to house the show “SPIN” devoted to the urban cycling revolution taking place in London, with a nod here and there to the sporting and serious leisure cycling side of things enabling the hipsters their radical touch of the esoteric work of cycling.

HipsterSpin was a show for Hipsters. No doubt whatsoever about that. There was the very deliberate wearing of 20,30,50 year old continental race team kit. I saw one guy. Beard long enough to plait and use as a climbing rope in his Gan team kit, hanging on Chris Boardman’s every word and nodding sagely as he munched on his tofu burger before clattering away in an ancient pair of wooden soled track shoes, converted to take the cleats of a set of middle ‘80s Look Classic pedals. Yes, it really was that sort of occasion. The exhibition was a truly enjoyable reflection of Brick lane’s very nature on to the world of cycling. There was a plentiful amount of beautifully crafted clothing, hand built bespoke bicycles (in steel of course) and the feeling that rather like the place 100 yards down Brick Lane that has now ceased attempting to trade in contemporary Vietnamese Folding food, many of them, for all of their skill and genuine innovation would struggle to stay in business much beyond two years or so. That is a great pity, because in the reviews that will follow shortly, I am going to take you on a wander through the best of SPIN and introduce you to some of the start up businesses that are attempting to take root.

If you’d not seen Rollapaluzza before, you might have been forgiven for turning away before you entered the place. They’d set up their usually thriving space and were attracting their usually lengthy queues accompanied by music so loud and a commentary so unintelligible that you have to walk away or give in. We walked away and that was the point at which we recognised the advantage of this very solid old building, step into the next room and the sound that filled the entrance hall was all but eliminated by the purposeful 19th century walls. A moment to reflect on some art work, depicting some of the greats of our sport….up to the 1990s (yes that was the first indicator) Bartolli, Coppi, Simpson, Merckx, Rijs, Anquetil, LeMond, Hinault, Boardman, Obree, Yndurain, Abdujaporov, and my hero (shut up… its my article) the finest climber of all time Marco(Il Pirate) Pantani. None of them were particularly flattering, but at Brick Lane prices I wasn’t going to be hanging one in my shed anyway.

The whole feel of the show was not so much a display of products to do with the world of cycling, but products that were designed to fit lifestyle choices of which cycling is but a part. Cycling fits very nicely into the choices made by the eco friendly….correction, obsessively eco friendly and thats not necessarily a bad thing, but there is a pedantic quirkiness about almost every exhibitor that makes sense to some. Indeed, with the exception of one or two of cycling better known brands. Boardman Elite and Bianchi, most were at the end of the cycling spectrum that says commuter or courier rider that seek form over function. Indeed the more conventional the product on offer the more out of place it looked.

Selva-1024x640A number of the products quirky or not, really did impress and I shall review them and in some cases road test them too. There was the stuff that did interest me. The bespoke frame builders, some of whom were brazing but joint and brazed steel frames that are becoming popular again amongst some sections of the regular cycling community. Sadly when we were there these craftsmen were not drawing anywhere near as much attention as the stand selling those bloody ridiculous Dura Ace equipped Bamboo framed bikes…… yes, exactly what I thought!

As I say, there was a kind of studied pedantry to the wares on offer. Quill stems, rat trap pedals with old style toe clips barely a modern pedal on view. I fell in love with a gorgeous titanium framed bike… The frame was brand spanking new, but everything on it was a (admittedly beautifully done) restored and refurbished ‘80s item. The entire group and finishing kit was old style 5 speed friction shift Campagnolo record. It gleamed. It stunned….. its price tag made me wince……. no, trust me you don’t want to know.

When it comes to anything approaching regular bike choices these folk are cautious. Yes I want something that says serious cyclist, but I don’t feel comfortable going into my LBS, so I’ll stick my nose in the trough with names I recognise Boardman, Bianchi and Cinelli… We can’t be seen to be going into Halfords or Evans and buying something cheaper and far more appropriate to our needs, it has to say chic. It has to say, “at weekends my other bike is a Porsche and my winters are spent at Cortina or Chamonix”.

Yes it was a Hipsters show and if thats your thing, good on yer. You’re riding a bike and anyone who has read my drivel before, knows that this will always get my vote. I half begged to be given this assignment and I’m glad I went for the few products that were in my jaded opinion worthy of attention and for the wonderful (and well attended) interview and Q&A with my hero of the entire show, Martyn Ashton. Will I go again next year? No. But I love Brick Lane, the street food etc, the tiny record stalls and the markets. I even like the quirky nature of SPIN….it’s just that very little of it was for me.

Pearl Izumi Tour Series – Motherwell – Round Two

All images ©CyclingShorts.cc/www.chrismaher.co.uk

 

Jon Mould relished the win in Motherwell for JLT Condor p/b Mavic after making the decisive five man break mid way through round two in Motherwell.

As the leaders were eventually reeled to-with-in jumping distance, they were joined by another four riders before the elastic snapped one-more.

Approaching the back-end of the race, rain fell and soaked the course, and the risk to push-on became ever-more dangerous.

The nine leaders maintained a healthy gap with Ian Bibby, NFTO trying hard to chase them down.

Mould had been joined by Olympian ‘teamie’ Ed Clancy, just back in the country from a block of altitude training and they positioned themselves carefully on the front into the final slippy corner, before power-sprinting up-towards the finish-line. It was Mould, Albert Torres, Team Raleigh GAC, then Clancy, one, two, three.

Extending their lead overall, JTL Condor p/b Mavis will wear the leaders Pearl Izumi jerseys as we cross to the eastern side of Scotland and round three of the Tour Series in Edinburgh on Thursday 19th.

 

1 JLT Condor P/B Mavic 4:37:27 10

2 Team Raleigh GAC 4:37:32 9

3 Pedal Heaven 4:37:34 8

4 Madison – Genesis 4:37:34 7

5 NFTO 4:37:37 6

6 Team Wiggins 5:46:00 0

 

Team Overall Classification after Round two

1 JLT Condor P/B Mavic 30

2 Madison – Genesis 25

3 Team Raleigh GAC 23

4 Pedal Heaven 21

5 NFTO 21

6 Team Wiggins 0

 

Chain Reaction Cycles Points Competition

1 51 Albert Torres Team Raleigh GAC 15

2 23 Will Fox Pedal Heaven 14

3 89 Jon Mould JLT Condor P/B Mavic 12

4 12 Tom Stewart Madison – Genesis 6

5 29 Rory Townsend Pedal Heaven 5

 

Chain Reaction Cycles Points Competition overall after Round two

1 45 Morgan Kneisky Team Raleigh GAC 17

2 29 Rory Townsend Pedal Heaven 17

3 23 Will Fox Pedal Heaven 17

4 51 Albert Torres Team Raleigh GAC 15

5 89 Jon Mould JLT Condor P/B Mavic 12

 

Round Two Individual Results – Motherwell

1 89 Jon Mould JLT Condor P/B Mavic 1:08:57.901 40

2 51 Albert Torres Team Raleigh GAC 1:08:58.398 40

3 80 Ed Clancy JLT Condor P/B Mavic 1:08:58.990 40

4 23 Will Fox Pedal Heaven 1:08:59.339 40

5 12 Tom Stewart Madison – Genesis 1:08:59.362 40

6 67 James Lowsley-WilliamsNFTO 1:08:59.568 40

7 41 Matthieu Boulo Team Raleigh GAC 1:08:59.734 40

8 70 Johnny McEvoy NFTO 1:09:00.204 40

9 25 Jack Pullar Pedal Heaven 1:09:00.276 40

10 4 Felix English Madison – Genesis 1:09:02.705 40

11 87 Chris Lawless JLT Condor P/B Mavic 1:09:44.155 40

12 2 Alex Blain Madison – Genesis 1:09:45.197 40

13 62 Ian Bibby NFTO 1:09:45.572 40

14 82 Graham Briggs JLT Condor P/B Mavic 1:09:46.284 40

15 47 Sebastian Mora Team Raleigh GAC 1:09:46.772 40

16 29 Rory Townsend Pedal Heaven 1:09:47.042 40

17 9 Gruff Lewis Madison – Genesis 1:09:47.099 40

18 45 Morgan Kneisky Team Raleigh GAC 1:09:47.163 40

19 20 Alex Paton Pedal Heaven 1:09:47.663 40

20 164 Joe Nally Scotland Cycling Team 1:09:49.655 40

Matrix Fitness Grand Prix 2016 – Motherwell

Images ©CyclingShorts.cc/www.chrismaher.co.uk

 

Woaw! A Big Deal for Eileen Roe as she seals her first win of 2016 in Round One of the Matrix Fitness GP in Scotland, wining a four-way sprint up-to the finish-line for Lares.

Round one of the Matrix Fitness Grand Prix took place in Motherwell this year. One of six-in-the-series, saw former National Circuit Champion and Scottish local Eileen Roe take the victory in a four-way sprint up-to the finish-line to the cheers of a home crowd.

Now riding for Belgium outfit Lares-Waowdeal on the continent, Eileen had wanted to returned home, feeling a little lonely after a nine-week stint in Europe. Being the only fluent English speaking girl on the squad, rode the first Women’s Lincoln Grand Prix on the weekend before finishing tenth, behind winner Alice Barnes, Drops Cycling Team, and Nikki Juniper, Team Ford Ecoboost who came in seventh.

It was Barnes that initiated the first move in Motherwell after Aprire-HSS Hire, Team WNT and Podium Ambition p/b Club La Santa drove the peloton for a couple of laps of the relatively square one-point-two-kilometre-circuit that finished with a long drag from the bottom final corner.

Juniper had counter-attacked and Roe knew which girls she had to look out for. She had seen how well Barnes rode to victory at Lincoln, and decided to go with group, with Annasley Park, Team Breeze joining them as the peloton strung apart, they soon built up a fifteen second lead.

The race was run over forty-five minutes with five final count-down laps to the finish line.

With two laps to go there was a pile up which unfortunately took out Mel Lowther who was later taken to hospital to be checked over.

The four leading riders increased to a twenty-five second gap on the chasing group as they started passing back-markers. An aggressive ride by Barnes also saw her claiming the two sprints and the jersey along the way.

It looked at one point like the main peloton would reel-them-in with Podium Ambitions Gabby Shaw and Lauren Creamer chasing hard, and Jo Tindley and Lydia Boylan, Team WNT  taking over, but the impetus went off and the four extended their lead.

With the final laps quickly approaching, the girls started looking across at each-others moves, trying to anticipate who would be their biggest rival.

As the final one-hundred meters marker pasted, it was Eileen that kicked the hardest to win the second visit to the Motherwell round on the Matrix Fitness GP.

Interview – Eileen Roe Matrix Fitness GP Motherwell 2016 Winner by Cycling Shorts

Chris Maher of CyclingShorts.cc catches up with the delightful Eileen Roe after her solo effort at round two of the Matrix Fitness GP in Motherwell.

Talking to Eileen after the race she had said, “There was a rider represented from each team” in their group, and she though if they worked together, they would say away to the end”. 

“I guess that they weren’t bothered about myself because the Tour Series is all about the “team” this year. So I think they were happy to have me along with them and contributing to the work”.

She went on to say that she wouldn’t be contesting any more of the Matrix Series as she returning back to her own team duties shortly before starting a big block of European racing on the continent. Firstly a big 1.1 UCI event in Belgium, the Gooik-Geraardsbergen-Gooik on May 29th, from then-on it continues every week, she went on to say. Check out this Testogen review that is one of the most popular fitness products that can really work out for you.

This is Eileen’s first win of the season, finishing third in the recent Dwars door Vlaanderen.

 

Results:

Team Classification & Overall after Round One

Rank Team Points

1 Drops Cycling Team 98

2 Team Breeze 79

3 Team Ford Ecoboost 78

4 Podium Ambition p/b Club La Santa 70

5 Team WNT 52

6 Aprire HSS Hire 25

7 Velo Schils – Interbike RT 23

8 Sunsport Velo 21

 

Sprint 1

1 100 Alice Barnes Drops Cycling Team 5

2 147 Annasley Park Team Breeze 4

3 256 Eileen Roe Lares Waowdeals 3

4 180 Nikki Juniper Team Ford Ecoboost 2

5 27 Jo Tindley Team WNT 1

 

Sprint 2

1 100 Alice Barnes Drops Cycling Team 5

2 256 Eileen Roe Lares Waowdeals 4

3 147 Annasley Park Team Breeze 3

4 180 Nikki Juniper Team Ford Ecoboost 2

5 27 Jo Tindley Team WNT 1

 

Sprints Classification & Overall after Round One

1 100 Alice Barnes Drops Cycling Team 10

2 256 Eileen Roe Lares Waowdeals 7

3 147 Annasley Park Team Breeze 7

4 180 Nikki Juniper Team Ford Ecoboost 4

5 27 Jo Tindley Team WNT 2

 

Individual Round Classification

Rank – Bib – Name – Team – Race Time – Laps Completed – Points

1 256 Eileen Roe Lares Waowdeals 0:46:02.227 24 40

2 100 Alice Barnes Drops Cycling Team 0:46:02.404 24 38

3 180 Nikki Juniper Team Ford Ecoboost 0:46:02.803 24 36

4 147 Annasley Park Team Breeze 0:46:02.817 24 34

5 102 Ellie Dickinson Drops Cycling Team 0:46:10.183 24 32

6 20 Lydia Boylan Team WNT 0:46:10.751 24 30

7 142 Hayley Jones Team Breeze 0:46:11.007 24 29

8 109 Annie Simpson Drops Cycling Team 0:46:11.495 24 28

9 2 Lauren Creamer Podium Ambition p/b Club La Santa0:46:12.406 24 27

10 11 Gabriella Shaw Podium Ambition p/b Club La Santa0:46:12.605 24 26

11 65 Louise Laker Aprire HSS Hire 0:46:12.661 24 25

12 182 Charlotte Broughton Team Ford Ecoboost 0:46:13.067 24 24

13 120 Lou Collins Velo Schils – Interbike RT 0:46:13.164 24 23

14 27 Jo Tindley Team WNT 0:46:15.979 24 22

15 205 Alice Sharpe Sunsport Velo 0:40:18.392 24 21

16 243 Neah Evans Scotland Cycling Team 0:46:53.406 24 20

17 110 Abi Van Twisk Drops Cycling Team 0:46:59.443 24 19

18 183 Henrietta Colborne Team Ford Ecoboost 0:47:00.483 24 18

19 4 Amy Gornall Podium Ambition p/b Club La Santa0:47:00.952 24 17

20 143 Emily Kay Team Breeze 0:47:14.119 24 16

21 3 Grace Garner Podium Ambition p/b Club La Santa0:48:09.436 24 15

22 187 Charline Joiner Team Ford Ecoboost 0:45:43.561 23 14

23 28 Hannah Walker Team WNT 0:45:43.972 23 13

24 160 Madison Campbell Team Footon Velosport 0:45:44.071 23 12

25 106 Rose Osbourne Drops Cycling Team 0:45:46.540 23 11

26 47 Jenny Holl Team Jadan-Weldtite 0:45:49.554 23 10

27 85 Kelly Murphy Boot Out Breast Cancer Cycling Club0:45:57.220 23 9

28 163 Suzetta Guerrini Team Footon Velosport 0:46:13.646 23 8

29 68 Gemma Sargent Aprire HSS Hire 0:40:13.426 20 7

30 203 Josie Knight Sunsport Velo 0:40:14.430 20 6

31 184 Julie Erskine Team Ford Ecoboost 0:40:15.218 20 5

32 61 Lucy Chittenden Aprire HSS Hire 0:40:16.366 20 4

33 208 Genevieve Whitson Sunsport Velo 0:40:16.870 20 3

34 206 Maddy Scott Sunsport Velo 0:40:17.026 20 2

35 84 Nikola Matthews Boot Out Breast Cancer Cycling Club0:40:18.558 20 1

36 82 Monica Dew Boot Out Breast Cancer Cycling Club0:40:18.574 20

37 246 Tanya Griffths Starley Racing 0:40:30.932 20

38 126 Nicola Soden Velo Schils – Interbike RT 0:41:02.256 20

39 41 Sarah Bradford Team Jadan-Weldtite 0:41:15.743 20

40 21 Sam Burman Team WNT 0:41:23.097 20

41 44 Rhona Callander Team Jadan-Weldtite 0:41:23.302 20

42 200 Eileen Burns Sunsport Velo 0:41:32.233 20

43 124 Sandra MacKay Velo Schils – Interbike RT 0:39:56.977 19

44 123 Katherine Kimber Velo Schils – Interbike RT 0:40:32.075 19

45 121 Caroline Guest Velo Schils – Interbike RT 0:41:12.207 19

46 80 Ellie Coster Boot Out Breast Cancer Cycling Club0:39:46.289 18

47 83 Kristy Howells Boot Out Breast Cancer Cycling Club0:40:41.746 17

 

Non-finishers

146 Melissa Lowther Team Breeze

25 Keira McVitty Team WNT

9 Katie Prankerd Podium Ambition p/b Club La Santa

 

Fat Lad At The Back (FLAB) Jersey & Shorts Review

 

“You should buy this kit; it’s called Fat Lad at the Back”

“These shorts would be great for you; they are called Fat Lass at the Back”

“This top would suit you; you can buy it from Fat Lad at the Back”

 

IMG_6874People of all shapes and sizes often ask me for kit recommendations, but I am not sure if I can say any of those sentences out loud without losing friends, clients or offending someone!

Fat Lad at The Back was the nickname of Richard Bye, the founder of the company, and is a term of endearment. The company admit it is a touchy subject having the marmite effect – either you love it or hate it, but they bravely persevered.

Fat Lad at the Back (FLAB) is a sportswear brand born in Yorkshire, with the clothing manufactured by a family-run company in Italy. The Fat Lad brand was originally created for what their website calls “Mr Averages, MAMIL’s with a 44” chest and a 38” waist”, but it quickly became apparent that there were bigger cyclists so it introduced larger sizes including a Spare Tyre range for the larger build. A women’s range was soon created, which took into consideration women’s curves and comfort.

A Twitter conversation the morning of The London Bike Show suggested I should speak to FLAB at the show after a discussion about the lack of kit for women who are not “a flat chested size 8-12” with one rider asking “how can these new brands be “women’s” when the biggest chest size they do it a 14” and another saying “it is a huge barrier to women coming into the sport”.

I spoke to several designers of women’s cycling clothing at the show and did indeed find the largest size, called XL, was only a UK14-16. One designer I spoke with said unfortunately they just can justify the additional expenses needed to design, produce and hold stock of the larger sizes which are less popular.

Instead of just sizing up the clothing the FLAB garments have been redesigned so they properly fit and flatter different sizes of rider. Some items state the name boldly in large text across the garments, other are more subtle with just a small logo. I have to confess that having ‘Fat Lass at the Back’ across my bottom was a great training inspiration as I pedalled furiously to disprove the label!

IMG_6904I tried the Flabularse Shorts (RRP £49.99) and the short sleeved ladies Lanterne Rouge Jersey (RRP 49.99) both available from size 8 to size 26.

The shorts fitted well and had some nice details including a draw string for the waist and a soft stretchy panel across the tummy allowing you to pull them right up over the belly area. I normally wear bib shorts and think generally bibs are more flattering with smoother lines, but agree shorts certainly make toilet stops easier and mean there is no need to remove a jersey, which some riders may feel self-conscious about, especially if having to go al fresco! Unfortunately as there was no knot tied in the draw string it had been lost in the waistband prior to me wearing, but with a bit of fiddling I retrieved it. The shorts are black with flattering seams, a large logo on the leg and across the lower back. The pad was comfortable on long road rides, the mountain bike and on the turbo.

The jersey is noticeably longer than my other jerseys, this is great for us ladies who like to pull things down over our hips and bottom and there is certainly no chance of any bare flesh when standing upright. The colour changes gradually down the top with the darker, more flattering colours over the lower torso and brighter colours across the bust and shoulders drawing the eye away from the areas we are usually more self conscious about. The sleeves are loose and long with no restrictive bands. A zipped pocket is handy for your valuables and a full length zip is always a plus in jerseys of this price range.

Both items washed well and I would happily recommend them if I could find a polite way of doing so!

Fat Lad at The Back has become a community, not just a brand, with riders involved in the development of new products and social media filled with riders’ photos, comments and inspirational rides. The company encourages everyone to have a go, have fun and enjoy their sport.

Alastair Little 2Alastair Little 3

When former rugby player Alastair Little was forced to cut his 25-year career short after a life-changing neck injury, he was devastated and soon piled on weight as his life spiralled towards depression. He managed to turn his life around after discovering a love for cycling. Riding with friends at Fat Lad at the Back, Alastair took to the road and after a few months he started to see the results, losing more than five stone and dramatically boosting his confidence.

Alastair said: “It was the motivation and help I received from the guys at FLAB which really inspired me to stick at it and lose the weight and not only that, I enjoyed the social aspect to cycling, and suddenly sport was bringing me back to life again.”

FLAB introduced Alastair to other, likeminded riders who taught him that he wasn’t alone.

 

logo-1FLAB Sportive – 8th May 2016

In a bid to further welcome novice cyclists, FLAB has introduced a new 25-mile event alongside its 50 and 75-mile distance sportives, taking place on the Yorkshire roads in May and in the Chiltern Hills in October. Looking after riders will be experienced FLAMbassadors riding in the sportives to encourage and support riders on the journey.

_D3X2319Fat Lad in Charge Richard Bye, who has 20 years’ experience cycling many of Yorkshire’s most recognised routes, said: “This year we have added a 25 miler as we hope to inspire some new riders who may fancy a sportive, but have never thought they could!”

“The food stops are also legendary and include black pudding scotch eggs and lots of other stuff which our fat Lads and Lasses like, as well as the usual fruit and flapjack based options. We also have a BBQ afterwards which went down really well last year,  this means people hang about and chat and share rather than just getting in their cars and leaving.”

Richard went on to say “Since founding FLAB we have been overwhelmed by how many people have come to us saying how much confidence they’ve gained with our support”

You can enter the sportive here and can find FLAB on the web http://fatladattheback.com/ on Facebook and on Twitter

Women’s Tour de Yorkshire 2016

ChTHltTWgAEPmsBWords by Anna Magrath Images by Chris Maher

 

Record Crowds for Spectacular Day 2 of Tour de Yorkshire

Over one million spectators came out to cheer on the riders for the second day of the Tour de Yorkshire, as the county celebrated a ground breaking day for women’s cycling.
Glorious sunshine started the day in Otley for the hotly anticipated Asda Tour de Yorkshire Women’s Race where World Champion Lizzie Armitstead led the peloton out of her hometown.
Crowds bigger than those who witnessed the Grand Départ in Otley cheered on as 100 of the world’s best female riders took part including Rio hopeful Emma Pooley; Dani King and Lucy Garner from British squad Wiggle High5, Hitec Products brought one of the world’s strongest sprinters Kirsten Wild and Dame Sarah Storey took part – Great Britain’s most decorated female Paralympian in history.
Speaking before the start Lizzie Armitstead, racing in her World Champions jersey for the first time in the UK, paid tribute to her home town of Otley and the immense support she was receiving.
The 136km race was a game changer for women’s cycling in the UK as it took the same route as the men’s and offered over £50,000 (€63,623) – currently the biggest prize pot in women’s cycling.
The winner of the Asda Women’s Tour de Yorkshire was Kirsten Wild from Team Hitec Products who crossed the finish line in Doncaster before thousands of cheering fans.

Sir Gary Verity, Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire said:

“Today has been an historic day for women’s cycling and it’s been a spectacular day of racing. The crowds were once again phenomenal and to see how the people of Yorkshire have taken this event to their hearts is just overwhelming. There was so much spirit and positivity in Yorkshire today it was magnificent to see. Clearly the one thing we would have changed if we could was the fact we had intermittent live TV coverage but I must stress that safety is paramount. Unfortunately there was a serious technical fault with the plane relaying the TV signal, the plane had to be grounded and the TV coverage could not continue for this reason.

“Fans and communities have continued their spectacular support for the Tour de Yorkshire not just from the routes but also digitally by sharing images, footage and updates to keep the public informed. Please keep tweeting and following @letouryorkshire and we will be putting highlights online tonight.
“We are now focussed on the day ahead tomorrow from Middlesbrough to Scarborough which promises to be an exhilarating race!”

ChTEvB2UoAADB7-Kirsten Wild:  The plan was to let a little group go with one of us in the break, unfortunately that didn’t work out, the girls did a good chase and we caught them in the final, it was really good work. The sprint was hard, I started a bit too early, and I thought maybe not, there was a really strong headwind, so I let one girl pass and I could follow her and then pass her in the final again. There were a lot of people on the roadside it was really nice to have that support. It’s good to win here in Doncaster.

Lucy Garner: “I couldn’t quite get around Kirsten for the sprint, everyone know she’s an awesome sprinter, she’s definitely the one to beat here today in a sprint, actually for me I’ve not been 100% healthy coming into this race so I couldn’t have asked for more today, especially from my team Wiggle High-5, they did an awesome job to bring the three that were away back. It would have been great if we had a rider up in the break, so we did have to work hard to bring them back but there were other teams working with us who also wanted a sprint finish. We caught the back [of the train] with 4km to go and then it was just a case of focusing on the sprint finish. We knew we had to look out for Lizzie [Armitstead] she’s on great form this season and has won so many races, it’s just lucky for us her breakaway didn’t stay away.”

Lizzie Armitstead: “I wanted to put on an aggressive race and a bit of a show, it’s what it’s all about cycling, it’s a bit of an entertainment show at the end of the day. I wanted to be able to get stuck in and have a go. There were a couple of moments where I thought we could stay away [from the peloton] we were holding them at about a minute and the team car came up and they told us the organisation in the chase is not very good so just keep plugging away, but when we tried towards Doncaster and it was just a block headwind we weren’t getting above 45km per hour I thought, right they are going to be closing that gap pretty quickly. 

By the time we were caught I’d burnt all my matches, I tried to get stuck in and help some of the younger girls on my team but actually they didn’t need it, they were quicker than me, so i was really proud of the way GB rode today, there are some young girls in the team and I think they have very bright futures. The course lived up to my expectations, in fact it was better, stating in Otley it was a goose pimple moment. All along the course there were people shouting so thank you to everyone who turned out.”

 

Jersey winners:

Overall, the winner of the blue Asda Women’s Tour de Yorkshire jersey was Kirsten Wild; her Hitech teammate Lauren Kitchen took the navy jersey of the Aunt Bessie’s sprint; Rossella Ratto of Cyclance Pro Cycling won the pink Mug Shot Queen of the Mountain jersey; the Howden’s Joinery/RNLI white jersey for best young newcomer went to Lucy Garner and the purple best team classification was awarded by Doncaster Sheffield Airport/Flybe to the Great Britain team.

 

 

More images and interviews from the race to come so watch this space!

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