Team News: Jon Tiernan-Locke Wins Tour Alsace

Jon Tiernan-Locke sealed overall victory in the Tour Alsace (UCI Europe Tour 2.2) today after commanding team performance on the Queen stage.

The final stage saw the peloton cover 157km from Ribeauvillé to Ballon d’Alsace – famously the first official mountain climb in the Tour de France in 1905 – with four classified climbs on the route before finishing at the top of the the first category Ballon d’Alsace. A large break went clear early in the stage, but none of the nineteen rider posed a threat to Tiernan-Locke’s 26 second overnight lead and so Endura Racing set about controlling the tempo of the bunch to keep the gap in check, whilst staying vigilant for late attacks.

The stage was won by Jonathan Fumeaux (Atlas Personal – Jakroo) who clipped clear from the break with Stian Remme (Joker – Media) and Daan Olivier (Rabobank Continental), before out-climbing them to the finish line.

Tiernan-Locke’s final margin of victory was 26 seconds over Alexandr Pliuschin (Leopard – Trek) and his dominant performance was rewarded with the Points and King of the Mountains classifications.

Jon Tiernan-Locke: The overall win was set up by Thursday’s stage win which opened up some big time gaps in GC, but it was very pleasing to get another stage win yesterday morning and then I followed that up with solid performance in the time trial last night to keep my lead. The guys rode incredibly well today, with Erick there all day for me, closing down all the gaps. I’m looking forward to a couple of days here in France to recover before heading to Paris-Corrèze.

Julian Winn (Sporting Director): Very pleased for Jon as he’s had a tough spell with illness and injury since the spring and it was a strong performance throughout the race from the rest of the team too. Today saw the ideal situation develop for us, with a large group away with no threats to Jon’s overall lead. The lads set about riding tempo and emptied themselves to take Jon to the bottom of the final climb, with Erick in particular doing a great job. Very pleasing to watch, a perfect team performance really.

Endura Racing’s next race is the UCI 2.1 ranked Paris-Corrèze which starts on Thursday.

Elsewhere this weekend, Rene Mandri finished in 50th place in the Olympic Road Race, coming home in the main bunch 40 seconds back from gold medallist Alexandr Vinokurov. Ian Wilkinson marked his return to racing after a bout of illness which has dogged him over recent weeks, with a win in the CDNW race Ulverston ahead of Richard Handley (Rapha Condor).

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