Savage End to Tour of Britain in Glasgow
15.09.07: The Tour of Britain finished in Glasgow today after a very eventful stage which recycling.co.uk's team manager John Herety described as savage. He said after the stage; "What a day! The race went from the blocks today, it was a savage start, there were lots of attacks aiming to dislodge the race leader, it settled in the middle but was fast again at the end."
And dislodge the race leader they did, Frenchman Romain Feillu (Agritubel) won this year's edition by the slightest margin in the race's history. He won the first sprint of the day which awarded him 3 seconds, exactly the time he was behind overnight leader Adrian Palomares (Fuerteventura - Canarias). The race commissaries had to go back to the Prologue time trial of last Sunday to split the two riders by just hundredths of a second.
It was these attacks that had the race lined out over the Scottish countryside and led to an average stage speed of 44.49 kph (27.65mph), which is very impressive considering the strong winds and undulating roads today. Unfortunately this led to 7 retirements today, the most of the race, including two of the youngest riders in the race in recycling.co.uk's Tom Diggle and Simon Holt. John Herety explained; "Simon went out the back on the first climb, shortly after Tom went out and he retired at the feed zone, I told Tom to climb off. I'm happy with their race, I would have liked them to finish in fairness, they are very tired. It was a baptism of fire for them, but they enjoyed it."
Recycling.co.uk's Ryan Bonsor, riding his first Tour of Britain at 23, finished 1 minute and 13 seconds behind stage winner Paul Manning (Great Britain) to record 46th overall, a very commendable result.
22-year-old Rob Partridge finished just in front of his team mate on the day to finish 60th overall and can be proud of his race this year after another strong individual performance earlier in the week, finishing 8th on stage 3.
|
