First UCI Win for Erick Rowsell in Tour of Normandy

EXCLUSIVE: VeloUK talks to Endura Racing’s young signing Erick Rowsell who soloed to victory today on stage 5 of the Tour of Normandy

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First UCI Win for London’s Erick Rowsell (Endura Racing)

Victory number 1 as a senior, and its a UCI bike race… well done Erick! Photo: Etienne Garnier | www.velofotopro.com

Endura Racing’s Erick Rowsell joined a select group in the team who have won races in 2012 after taking a chance in the finale of stage 5 after a tough race and holding on to win solo.

“It’s great” he said afterwards. “I think this is my win since I was a junior” he added laughing. Erick is a former British Junior Road Race champion and has come of age in the Tour of Normandy by showing himself and his team that when given the opportunity to go for the win, he has the firepower to finish the job off.

The fifth stage finished on a circuit which Erick explained was hilly and grippy with no flat bits and the final run up to the line was uphill. “It was quite a technical run in, especially the last kilometre so I felt if you could get a good gap going into that, it would be hard for the bunch to go much quicker providing you didn’t tie up on that final hill.”

Erick won the stage by nine seconds and had attacked with five kilometres to go but admits he wanted to go even earlier but was given some advice by the overall winner from 2011 no less, teammate Alex Blain of France.

“It was quite a hard finishing circuit, about 12k and I was looking to make a move towards the end of it (lap to go) but Alex said to wait for the finale. He said ‘don’t think about the GC, just think about the stage, and that if I’d gone too early, it was going to be easy for the chasers to bring me back. So I had to wait and pick my moment to go for it which I did. That worked!”

His victory came after a tough day in the saddle. “It was a really hard stage, attacks right from the gun. It may have even been the hardest stage we’ve had so far. For the first two hours, it was just full on all the time and it took ages for a break to go.”

“It was a hilly and windy as well so you were always having to fight to be in the front and in the right place. Three guys went away and I think Richard Handley (Rapha Condor Sharp) was among them and then Europcar starting riding a good tempo all day. Then, when we got to the finishing circuit, it all kicked off again.”

“The team did a really good job with all of us being up there together, covering different moves so it was a real team effort again”.

“I have really good form at the moment having done quite a bit of racing already this year and it’s been great to make the most of it by getting the opportunities. Erick explained that when he was with the academy up until this year that he did have his own opportunities but most of the time he was working for the likes of Andy Fenn and Luke Rowe. Having made the switch to a pro team, he’s had a more open role at Endura Racing and says the move to the team has worked really well for him.

“Julian (Winn) from Endura Racing has made me realise I can do it myself and given me the confidence to go and try it and today that worked. There are three days left now, all hard days and having ridden it last year I know what to expect, days like today but then the harder the better!”

Good luck to Erick and the team, can they make it three wins! Erick is also 8th overall and who knows, should the right break go and stay away like it did early on in the race, he may well improve on that.

Result

1. Erick Rowsell Endura Racing 04:21:14
2. Andrey Solomennikov Itera – Katusha 00:09
3. Wesley Kreder Rabobank Continental Team @ same time
4. Simon Yates @ same time
5. Vegard Bugge Robinson Team Joker – Merida @ same time
6. Eugenio Alafaci Leopard TREK @ same time
7. Michael Olsson Team CykelCity.se @ same time
8. Jasper Bovenhuis Rabobank Continental Team @ same time
9. Gerry Druyts EFC – OmegaPharma – Quick.Step @ same time
10. Cyrille Patoux Vc Rouen 76 @ same time

14. Jonathan McEvoy Endura Racing @ same time
28. Scott Thwaites Endura Racing @ same time
30. Owain Doull @ same time
35. Christopher Jennings Rapha Condor Sharp @ same time
38. Alexandre Blain Endura Racing @ same time
39. Rob Partridge Endura Racing @ same time
45. Thomas Moses @ same time
53. Alistair Slater @ same time
65. Michael Cumings Rapha Condor Sharp @ same time
90. Richard Lang Rapha Condor Sharp @ 2.53
108. Richard Handley Rapha Condor Sharp @ 11.22
119. Daniel Mclay Lotto – Ridley Espoirs @ same time
122. Ian Wilkinson Endura Racing 12:22
124. James Mccallum Rapha Condor Sharp @ same time

OVERALL
1. Jérôme Cousin Europcar 12:38:41
2. Guillaume Malle Team Véranda Rideau-U 00:08
3. Alexandr Pliuschin Leopard TREK 00:21
4. Ruslan Tleubayev Continental Team Astana 01:24
5. Gael Malacarne Bretagne Schuller 01:31
6. Michael Olsson Team CykelCity.se 02:22
7. Jasper Bovenhuis Rabobank Continental Team 02:24
8. Erick Rowsell Endura Racing 02:25
9. Thomas Scully Chipotle – First Solar @ same time
10. Philip Lindau Team CykelCity.se 02:26

16 Jonathan Mcevoy Endura Racing @ 2.29
23 Rob Partridge Endura Racing @ 2.33
27 Alexandre Blain Endura Racing 02:34
30 Simon Yates @ same time @2.34
34 Scott Thwaites Endura Racing @ 2.35
43 Thomas Moses @ 2.38
48 Alistair Slater @ 2.40
52 Michael Cumings Rapha Condor Sharp 02:42
66 Christopher Jennings Rapha Condor Sharp @ 2.49

 

 

 

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