Post Race Chat – Chris Lawless

Bioracer_Example

Talking to 19 year old Chris Lawless having an awesome season with wins in Britain and showing his class in Europe as well

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

Post Race Chat – Chris Lawless

It’s been a long season for Chris Lawless of Team Wiggins who was racing in the Aussie Sun Tour classic stage race in February. During the year, the youngster has won crits and then a few weeks ago, was sixth in a Belgian semi classic.

But last Sunday, Chris won his first ‘Prem’, the team’s second of the year and it wasn’t just his sprint but his strategy and cornering ability that helped him win. The rider from the North West held off one of the most experienced pros in the business Yanto Barker (One Pro Cycling) and a rider on fire at the moment, Graham Briggs.

0_GP-Wales_Report_03

The other riders were full of praise at how he railed the corners at the end and then held his sprint for a good 600 metres or so. Chris explained that because Raleigh were riding on the front and controlling it quite a bit, he just had to sit tight.

“I put myself on (Steele) Von Hoff’s wheel as NFTO were looking really strong and I knew they’d take him to the line in a good position. I started to get swamped though under the flamme rouge and I spotted a gap and with 600 to go I went. I knew if I did the last few corners quick, I’d have a good chance of holding on!”

Hold on he did although he admitted in a little ‘twitter banter’ with Yanto Barker and Graham Briggs that he was aware they were coming at him fast.

GPWales_Sprint

TwitterGPWales_02

TwitterGPWales_01

Talking us through the race, Chris explained that a break never got established like it does normally. “There was no real early break that stayed away. I got in a break 70 or 80k in and I thought at one point it was going to stay away but One Pro were not happy with the riders in it so George (Atkins) sat on whilst One Pro pulled it back and then he went straight after that putting them in a good situation”.

“Luckily for me, Raleigh missed that move and they rode it back”.

Chris a few weeks ago was sixth in a Belgian semi classic, GP Cerami and when asked what the difference is between riding a British race and one with the likes of Philippe Gilbert and Tom Boonen to name but two household names, the 19 year old replied “doing races like that, no-one looks at me to do anything because all the WorldTour teams were there.”

LawlessAttacking

“So you can more or less hide all race and not really hit the wind much. I got in that break at Cerami early on which went from a small group to a much bigger group so I didn’t do that many turns. I did give it a go attacking on the finishing circuit but I still didn’t spend that much time in the wind and was able to ride clever.” Chris was sixth in a race won by Gilbert with Boonen 4th.

“In Britain though and being a UCI team, other teams will always look at us to work even though we only had five riders today and Ian came down early in a crash. So there is a difference between the racing here and there but not a massive one.

British racing is real hard but more importantly it’s also different to European racing. The roads are grippier and that makes it harder in the wheels! In Europe in the wheels, because the roads are so smooth, easy to ride you don’t really have to pedal but here you’re having to ride all day.”

LawlessBreak

 

Chris in the break of nine riders which formed on the second of the big loops but was brought back.

Send your results as well as club, team & event news here

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

Tags: , ,