After the recent dry dusty roads of the Maldon Dengie Tour and a damp two days in Scotland at the Tour DoonHame, IG-Sigma Sport headed across the pond to take on the Tour of the Battenkill.
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TEAM PRESS RELEASE
The race is a demanding one day 200km event in rural New York often known to locals as ‘Cow Country’. On the start line in IG-Sigma Sport colours for the UCI 1.2 race were, Steve Lampier, Simon Richardson, Tom Last, Wouter Sybrandy, Dan Lloyd and Peter Hawkins.
After one lap of the 100km circuit, a break got away which included Tom Last. This group increased its lead and continued to split during one of the toughest dirt sections with the race eventually being won by Francisco Mancebo. Tom held on to cross the line in a very respectable 12th place.
Afterwards, Tom explained “We all felt pretty good after doing a recce of the course a couple of days before the race. A few of us have an off road background including myself so we felt comfortable on these sections. As we weren’t familiar with many of the other riders, the team’s plan was to follow the moves and stick near the front of the field to avoid too much trouble on the dirt sectors and hills.”
“Apparently there have been severe drought conditions throughout the state so the dirt roads were incredibly dusty. You literally couldn’t see much in front of you. The mid 20’s temperature seemed almost tropical in comparison to DoonHame last weekend!”
“I found the standard of riders and the racing a lot different to the UK. A broader range of abilities and a lot more Continental and Pro-Conti teams than we would get back home. I managed to get in the break and it was a bit unfortunate that we didn’t have numbers in there. Pete Hawkins suffered with a couple of punctures at crucial times but there were three of us without team mates so not everyone was working together in the break.”
“The stronger teams like Bissell, United Healthcare and Competitive Cyclist all had numbers in the break so it was just a matter of avoiding the turns. The last stages of the race weren’t great. A few of us got gapped on a climb with about 25km to go so it got pretty grim riding in after that but overall I was pleased with how I rode and securing 12th place”.
