Team News – Tour of Morocco for Achieve

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The Planet X – Northside Pro Cycling team round up including racing the Tour of Morocco

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Team News – Tour of Morocco for Achieve

The team had a number of successes at smaller races earlier in the season including a number of circuit victories and a stage in the 2-day Holme Valley Race and two stages and 2nd overall at the Tour of Malta en route to building up to the first big target of the year the Chorley GP.

ACHIEVECYCLING

At Chorley, Ben was active from the start spending 80km in a break of three with Ian Wilkinson of Pedal Heaven and Rob Partridge of NFTO. Following the catch Ben, Charlie and Dan were active in different moves off the front of the race, gaining valuable experience and TV coverage at the highest-level race in the UK giving the riders confidence going into the core of the season.

Following on from Chorley GP six riders and two staff travelled to Morocco for a 10-day Tour of Morocco covering 1540km in 10 days of racing. The team took the race on with Ben in the break of the day during Stage 1 and 2 moving him to a position in the top 10 of the GC and 2nd in the Young Riders classification. Stage 4 was the first big stage 193km, Rob Orr spent 191km in a five man break only to be caught an agonizing 1.8km from the finish, however his hard work set Charlie up for a 9th place on the stage.

Stage 5 was the Queen Stage of the race, 200k with five mountains passes including a 2200m peak, gravel roads and torrential rain. Ben and Charlie established the break and weren’t caught until the 105km point, by the GC group including Stefan Schumacher and Jonathan Monslave who was 30th in the 2015 Giro d’Italia.

Ben was distanced on the final climb of the day coming in at 6’40sec but remaining within the top 20 riders on GC. Charlie was 9th again on stage 7, and the riders continued to gain experience and fitness with the remaining stages featuring lot’s of aggressive riding and echelons. Ben eventually finished the tour 22nd on GC at 8’40sec, and 5th in the young riders classification.

The team now head to the Tour of the Reservoir and the Drummond Trophy this weekend looking to continue the momentum of recent performances.

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