News: Big win for Richard Handley in Spain

After showing promise throughout his debut season with the Rapha Condor Sharp team, Richard Handley took the development squad’s biggest victory to date on the last stage of the Vuelta Ciclista Leon, on Saturday.

Handley was part of a fifteen-man escape that dominated the proceedings during the 118km stage between Laguna de Negrillos and the province capital Leon. The break’s advantage had hovered between two and three minutes throughout the day, and a strong surge from the bunch in the final 20km forced Handley to take the initiative, pulling away a three man which held off the chase all the way to the line.

The young Mancunian was naturally delighted, if a little surprised at the ease by which he eventually took the win, saying, “I had seen the finish before so I had an idea of the final few hundred metres, in the end I just led it out and no-one could come round me.”

For Handley the win marks a huge step forward in his career, and while it may have come as a pleasant surprise to him, team manager John Herety had noted the upwards climb of his form throughout the week.

“Rich had raced very aggressively on the first day, and a combination of the route and the heat meant that he overcooked it a bit and he lost a lot of time on the first mountain stage. After that though I saw he started to improve day by day. I am sure that had he raced a little differently on the first day he could actually have been up there on G.C. but that being said- being lower down on the overall meant that he was allowed to get into the break on the final day with no problems, and his win there is really great for him, and all the young guys in the team.”

Reflecting on the team as a whole throughout one of the harder tests the young group will face this season; Herety also noted several encouraging improvements amongst the other riders. “It was a really big challenge for the guys, the heat across Southern Europe in the past couple of weeks has been extraordinary, and the level this year at Leon is certainly much higher than last year (where the team took three stage wins- Ed).”

“They were all taken aback by the difficulty at first, but Luke Mellor in particular rode really well to get around, with seemingly no real difficulty, and Chris Jennings has bounced back from a cold only a week ago to be very aggressive in the racing.”

With the upcoming Tour of Britain in mind, the team will now stay on in Spain and continue with two hard days training, in order to help simulate a longer stage race.