News – Blythe returns to London

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Winner in 2014 for NFTO, Adam Blythe returns to RideLondon with Orica GreenEdge looking for a repeat win

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News – Blythe returns to London

In the 2014 edition, a breakaway escaped which was brought back by Team Sky and from that a small group escaped with Blythe (NFTO) and fellow South Yorkshire rider Ben Swift (Team Sky). In the sprint, with the likes of Philippe Gilbert (BMC) present, Blythe had his biggest victory to date despite having ridden a domestic season including the Tour Series.

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Talking to VeloUK recently about the 2015 edition of RideLondon, Adam explained “It will either be a big sprint or a breakaway again and I’ll go into the race like I did last year and hope for the best and stay at or near the front.”

Giving hope to the domestic based riders, Adam explained “Last year I was surprised how well I was going post crits. I did the Tour Series and I just kept training through it and I came out of it going quite good. The crits were really good for the top end on top of the road work I was doing.”

“I’d like to do it more of them (crits) but coming home for an hour race, I can’t really do it”.

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The 25-year-old’s victory at last year’s edition of RideLondon was a key factor in his signing with the WorldTour outfit Orica GreenEdge for the 2015 season. His DS at Orica, Matt White says in a press release, “Adam is the defending champion and is highly motivated to get another good result”.

“It is a race that is growing in stature. It’s an Olympic legacy race, a lot of the course is similar to the Olympic Games in London, it’s live on television from start to finish and the crowds are massive.”

Blythe will be joined by fellow punchy riders Danish neo-pro Magnus Cort and multiple track world champion Leigh Howard. The trio give the Australian outfit a number of cards to play on Sunday whilst the work of Sam Bewley and Michael Hepburn direct from San Sebastian the day prior and Dutchman Jens Mouris will also be crucial.

“We want to be present in moves,” White said. “We would be happy with a move with Blythe, Cort or Howard to go the line because they are fast enough guys to contest in a small group.”

“Sam and Michael will come direct from San Sebastian on Saturday night, so they have a tough weekend but as always, their work early will be vital.”

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With 50km of flat to finish the 200km Classic, it has the potential to come back together for a bunch sprint or conclude with another successful breakaway. The loss of Tour hero Andre Greipel who has withdrawn from the race and there may be others being a week after the Tour which has been packed with post Tour ‘crits’ may be significant in teams keeping it together.

Because teams only have six riders, there will need to be a few of them willing to working together to hold the race together or, like last year, it will explode.

Ride London will also be Adam’s first race back following the British RR championships and before that, the Tour of Korea where he was the lead out man for Caleb Ewan and still finished third overall himself. When we spoke, Adam admitted that during the Tour de France, there is nothing on so after some racing at Otley, Adam returned home to Monaco to prepare for the second half of the season.

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“It’s nice (the break during the Tour) because you don’t get to spend much time at home normally so it’s good to be at home and do some nice training and have a normal routine”. Talking about his role at Orica, Adam explained that so far, a lot of it has been working with the Aussie sprinter, Caleb Ewan.

“Caleb is superfast and I am doing the best I can to deliver him in sprints. Korea was good and the third overall for me was a bonus. Caleb’s flying and when he gets a result, it’s good for me having led him out”.

“I will get the opportunities and RideLondon is a nice target. After that, the Eneco Tour and hopefully get on the Worlds team (GB). I would still like to get more results and know I’m heading in the right direction”.

Orica GreenEdge for RideLondon
Sam Bewley
Adam Blythe
Magnus Cort
Michael Hepburn
Leigh Howard
Jens Mouris

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