Tour of Britain Chat: Steve Lampier

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The GC hope for JLT Condor lies with Steve Lampier who has a best finish of 17th on the overall but is aiming higher for the 2016 Edition

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Tour of Britain Chat: Steve Lampier

When VeloUK interviewed team boss of JLT Condor John Herety, he had hopes of three goals in the Tour of Britain but losing sprinter Chris Lawless to an injured shoulder sees those hopes dashed perhaps and instead rest on riders getting into breaks and a rider doing well on GC.

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For the latter, those hopes lay on the shoulders of Steve Lampier in his sixth Tour of Britain who replies when asked how difficult a challenge that is for him, he says “Very hard. It’s about being consistent every day and to do that you need good luck but you can make your own luck as well.”

“So it’s hard but I’m up for that task. We have a great atmosphere in the team led by John (Herety) and Tim (Kennaugh) who know a lot about bike racing and they have allowed me to prepare in my own way. I went down to Cornwall to train for three weeks and then did some preparation races in Belgium and France last week and having been allowed to put my own preparation into the race has helped.”

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Steve getting ready for a little ride this morning with the team

“That’s given me a lot of confidence especially when John told me I’d be riding the Tour of Britain. That was a weight off my shoulders and I was able to do what I needed to do so that was a big bonus for me.”

Asked about the 2016 race, Steve says on paper, it looks the hardest yet. “It has those two transitional stages in Wales and into Bath and they are going to be hard days up and down all day which could pose a threat to a GC rider. Asked what he’d deem a good GC position to be, Steve explained that his best before this edition was 17th but a mechanical on the stage into Brighton with just over 3k to go cost him four places on the overall. … continued after advert

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“Top 10 I think is over ambitious with the quality of the riders here but realistically, top 15 is within my grasp if everything goes right over the eight days. The summit finish should suit me but the time trial we’re up against it. We don’t ride enough time trials in major races. I got a TT bike off the team in July and have done some club 10’s but riding a club 10 is so different to one in a stage race especially when it comes on day 7 after a summit finish the day before.”

Finally, asked how hard is it to be consistent which sounds easy on paper, following wheels all week and staying at the front. “It is a difficult challenge” Steve replies. “You can never afford to switch off. There was a day I was riding last year and there was a crash with six k to go and I had no choice but to sit up and ride in so I was no-where on GC. Other years I was holding on to wheels and sprinting down to the finish to not lose any time so you have to be on it all the time. It’s quite stressful, but fun as well!”

Steve explains that although sitting in the wheels may be easy in British races, when the race is doing 60k an hour it is not easy. “RideLondon is a prime example” he says. “We got to the top of Box Hill and I think that’s about 55k from the finish and we did that in around 46 minutes so they motor so fast and the worst thing is getting position.”

“It’s the equivalent of a second cat doing a Premier Calendar. We don’t give them much space and the ProTour guys don’t give us much either so you have to be respectful but fight for the result. Ian Wilkinson was telling me the other day that everyone wants to ride the race but no-one realises how hard it is until they have done it”.

Good luck to Steve in his goal of a good GC placing ….

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