Team News: 2nd for Ed Clancy in the City

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Rapha Condor JLT’s Ed Clancy finished second at Canary Wharf in the eighth round of the Pearl Izumi Tour Series last night.

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It was a tough race for the Men in Black who gave their all in an attempt to get the Olympic Gold Medallist across the line first. Clancy was in brilliant form coming into the race, with two victories under his belt already at Aberystwyth and Torquay. The team made a tactical decision early on to keep building on Clancy’s form, deciding to forgo leader Kristian House’s defence of the sprint jersey.

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Felix English leads Ed Clancy into a corner on the circuit at Canary Wharf.

Director Sportif John Herety said “Second is a good result but the guys are obviously all gutted that we couldn’t have gone one better. With his recent form it was an easy decision to tailor our race to Ed. He looked strong throughout – he was maybe a bit ambitious trying to lead the sprint out, but he thought he had the legs to do it.”

The team did a large amount of work early on to reel in Team UK Youth’s Chris Opie, with the fast circuit making it incredibly hard for any individual to get a decent lead. The pace hardly relented over the whole race, with a number of riders being dropped from the main bunch. A crash also thinned the bunch in the final stages, but the aggressive kick that came in the sprint was a reflection of the race overall.

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Ed Clancy has some rather ‘sick’ Campagnolo wheels in for the Canary Wharf Tour Series race… bling bling 

Team leader Kristian House was joint first with Raleigh’s Tom Scully in the IG Sprint Standings going into the race, but it was clear that this didn’t chime with the team’s overall aim.

“We made the decision to back Ed tonight, and that meant giving up my chances of defending the overall sprinters lead – something that I was more than happy to do. Any move I made to try and get into breaks or put in turns on the front would just have been marked by Raleigh so trying to keep my own sprint position and place Ed highly would have been impossible. For Ed to get second is tough, but with his two wins and this second place we are still right in the mix going into the final few stages.”

As it is, House sits second in the IG Sprint Standings, thirteen points behind Scully going into next Tuesday’s Round 9 in Woking. Rapha Condor JLT sit fourth overall with three rounds left to race.
Highlights of the Canary Wharf stage will be shown on ITV4 at 10pm on Friday 7th June.

 

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