Tour de Normandie – Stage & Race Lead to Moses

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A lone attack 12 kilometres from the finish from Yorkshire’s Tom Moses saw the rider in black not only win the stage solo but take the Yellow jersey as well

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Tour de Normandie – Stage & Race Lead to Moses

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A big day for Tom Moses winning stage 1 of the Tour of Normand. Photo: http://www.tourdenormandiecycliste.fr

Tom’s team, led by long time manager John Herety, have been coming to the race for five years and the stage Tom won, has according to John, always been ridden using the same route and then decided in a bunch finish. Not in 2014!

On the longest stage of the race, and after a dry start, the rain fell on the 149 riders still in the race for stage 1 proper which was expected to finish in a bunch kick. A UCI 2.2 race where the racing can be less controlled, this stage did see the classic text book early break get away and in there was Mark Christian of Team Raleigh.

The BMC (development) team who held the Yellow jersey, rode all day and that worked against them later on.  Out front, the Isle of Man rider (Christian) did what he has already done this year in France this year and for 150 kilometres he gave it everything.

The trio managed to open up a gap of almost eight minutes on the peloton but the headwind that blew the rain at them condemned them to fail to stay clear to the end.

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Photo: http://www.tourdenormandiecycliste.fr

With several teams all wanting the bunch kick, the lead of the break narrowed rapidly in the last 50 kilometres. It was just before entering the final circuit around Forges-les-Eaux the peloton made the junction with the leaders.

The final 28 km circuit was then the scene of a thrilling storyline! Attacks, counterattacks, groups constantly going away until the peloton, which is by then split in two, sees Thomas Moses (Rapha Condor JLT) take off.

Moses took advantage of a lull in the racing after the break had been caught. The former GB academy rider broke clear with another rider but his end of race form proved too much for his rival and Tom raced on solo out front.

In weather not uncommon in Britain, Moses parted the air in front of him at speed that his pursers could not match. The lead rose rapidly, 10 seconds, 20 then 30 then 20 and 30 again!

The gap changing in favour of Thomas Moses finally prevailed and presented him with a nice set of jerseys — yellow jersey overall, green jersey sprint and white jersey youth. Mark Christian is second in the King of the Mountains and leads the Sprints classification.

For Moses, the win was a reward for the hard work done in a long training stint in Australia over the winter and the manager John Herety says the team will defend the jersey. “It is a great start here, but of course we’d like to go for more” he said afterwards.

Cue lots of riding on the front for the men in black today. Good luck to all the British teams and British riders on stage 2.

STAGE 1

1 MOSES Thomas Rapha Condor JLT 04:55:02
2 VAN TRIJP Maarten Rabobank Development Team 00:17
3 ENGER Sondre Holst Team Sparebanken Sør
4 NIKOLAEV Sergey Itera – Katusha
5 MCLAY Daniel
6 VEREECKEN Nicolas Verandas Willems
7 CARDIS Romain
8 BOHLI Tom
9 BLAIN Alexandre Team Raleigh
10 DRUYTS Gerry Team3M

15 BARKER Yanto Team Raleigh
19 KNEISKY Morgan Team Raleigh
21 WILKINSON Ian Team Raleigh
27 MCNALLY Mark An Post – Chain Reaction
35 OPIE Christopher Rapha Condor JLT
41 BOULO Matthieu Team Raleigh
63 WETTERHALL Alexander FireFighters Upsala CK
69 HANDLEY Richard Rapha Condor JLT
83 STEPHENSON William Rapha Condor JLT
116 DOULL Owain An Post – Chain Reaction 03:56
123 CHRISTIAN Mark Team Raleigh
136 CUMING Michael Rapha Condor JLT 04:04
147 ENGLISH Felix Rapha Condor JLT 10:10

Overall

1 MOSES Thomas Rapha Condor JLT 05:00:15
2 KüNG Stefan 0:06
3 NIKOLAEV Sergey Itera – Katusha 0:07
4 BOHLI Tom 00:09
5 BORGERSEN Reidar Bohlin Team Joker 0:10

8 BOULO Matthieu Team Raleigh 0:13
35 WETTERHALL Alexander FireFighters Upsala CK 0.22
41 MCLAY Daniel 0.24
53 MCNALLY Mark An Post – Chain Reaction 0.26
55 HANDLEY Richard Rapha Condor JLT 0.27
56 MORICE Julien
57 OPIE Christopher Rapha Condor JLT
68 BLAIN Alexandre Team Raleigh 0:31
74 KNEISKY Morgan Team Raleigh 0.32
75 GRONDAHL JANSEN Amund Team Sparebanken Sør
76 BARKER Yanto Team Raleigh 00:33
77 WILKINSON Ian Team Raleigh 00:34
84 STEPHENSON William Rapha Condor JLT 0.37
97 CHRISTIAN Mark Team Raleigh 03:49
102 DOULL Owain An Post – Chain Reaction 03:59

 

 

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