TalkingShop: Matt Cronshaw (Madison Genesis)

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Talking to Matt Cronshaw (Madison Genesis) about his long spell at the front of stage 3 in the Tour of Britain

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TalkingShop: Matt Cronshaw (Madison Genesis)

With the Tour of Britain (Stage 3) heading from Cumbria to Scotland, North West rider Matt Cronshaw (Madison Genesis) made sure he showed off his teams colours by getting in the day’s break.

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When the move went from six to three riders, Matt was still hanging in there and he was the second of the team to make a break for it in this year’s Tour. It was only the combined forces of the sprint teams that managed to bring the break back in the closing kilometres and a visibly exhausted Matt Cronshaw rolled up to his team bus to warm down.

Before he did, VeloUK managed to grab a chat with him. He started by explaining that it was pretty hectic in the beginning.

“Along the coast road, there were a lot of riders who wanted to be in the break and it took about 20k before the move managed to get away. We had a group but there was a bit of fuss early on with Jonny Mac (McEvoy, NFTO) who was only a minute and half down on GC. We all started to work well together though.”

“I think after yesterday, nobody in the bunch wanted to ride and were playing each other off and we all knew if we saved a bit of energy until the last couple of KoM’s, and made a concerted effort in the final 50k, we might be able to hold them off.

“Tyler (Farrar) had gone for a KoM and I challenged him and I came pretty close and then going onto the second one, there were quite a few tired bodies out there. I was trying to go for the KoM to protect Tom’s lead in the competition but in the back of mind, I knew Marcin (Bialoblocki, One Pro Cycling) was keen all day and I thought it would be worth digging in over the top and as I did, it split and there was just me, Tyler and Marcin”.

“I suffered for five to ten k after that but just put my head down.”

“After the final KoM, we thought we could do it and were riding as hard as we could but it wasn’t enough.”

Asked what feedback he was getting from his manager Roger Hammond, Matt replied “just lots of time gaps and encouragement. In that situation, with just under 20k to go and a lead of under two minutes, there wasn’t much to say except ride as hard as you can.”

“There were just a few little rises in that last 15k that after 200k in the break, really tapped the speed. If it had all been flat or downhill we might have hung on for a little longer.” Asked when did he think he knew it was over, Matt explained “about 2k to go, just before we got caught. We hadn’t got a time check for five or six k so it came down from a minute and half pretty quick.”

“During the break, I was thinking about the stage last year that Tom Stewart was third on after a break with Alex Dowsett and Matthias Brandle and was just thinking about hanging on. It didn’t matter to me, first, second or third, for us it was job done with the TV and I’m pretty happy to come away having been in the break but if the break had stayed away, I would have been over the moon to get a podium place in the Tour of Britain.”

“It was still one of my best and worst rides I’ve done – torture!”

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