News: Lawless on his win in Yorkshire

Tour de Yorkshire winner Chris Lawless insight: “We heard on our radio that Kamp was chasing behind and I was like ‘look mate, we all need to ride”

News: Lawless on his win in Yorkshire

By Andrew Greaves, Sportsbeat
Tour de Yorkshire winner Chris Lawless revealed a chat with team boss Sir Dave Brailsford gave him the confidence to hold off the challenge of Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet on the final stage.

Overnight leader Lawless scooped the Yorkshire Bank and York Bank Bike Libraries blue leaders jersey after finishing second to the Belgian in front of huge crowds at the finish in Leeds. He had started the day six seconds ahead of van Avermaet but had to work hard in the final few kilometres to ensure the CCC rider didn’t triumph. And after taking the applause on the finish podium, the Team INEOS rider said: “I had a call with Dave B last night and he asked me how I was feeling and I said I was genuinely gutted”.

“He said we could look at it two ways – I could either concentrate on the negatives and worry about that or look at the situation we’re in with the probably the strongest team in the race and look to enjoy that. He basically said I could do it and I just had to believe in myself and try and hand in there and that’s what I did.”
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Lawless revealed he’d had to ask van Avermaet to share the workload as the pair, plus Lawless’ teammate Eddie Dunbar, headed for Leeds. The Wigan rider said he was conscious that Riwal’s Jesper Kamp, who won the third stage from Bridlington to Scarborough and was only behind Lawless on a countback, was breathing down their neck.

He said: “We heard on our radio that Kamp was chasing behind and I was like ‘look mate, we all need to ride’ because this was for the stage and the GC. I was like ‘we’re not going to stay away if we don’t ride’. Riwal had a good team, they showed that yesterday they were really strong. You can’t give a team like that the chance to pull you back or you just throw the race away, both the stage and the GC.”

Lawless joked he’d have called anyone who said he could win the race a ‘bare faced liar’ before the final stage. Having lost contact momentarily with the main group on the testing Cote de Otley Chevin, the 23-year-old worked hard to get back on and then followed van Avermaet at the key moment with 5km to go. A clearly shocked Lawless said: “I didn’t think it was possible. I managed to get to the bottom of the (Otley) Chevin without getting dropped and then maybe about halfway up it I started losing distance with the main guys. I knew the climb with 5km to go wouldn’t be too bad if I could just get over the Chevin and back to that group I had a chance of staying up there.

“(Owain) Doull did a really good job of getting me over the Chevin and then when Greg went with 5km to go we already had Eddie up the road and I knew I just had to follow Greg. Then I just told Eddie to ride because I knew that even if I got second on the stage and Greg won then I’d still win.”

Yorkshire Bank is an Official Partner of the Tour de Yorkshire and the ground-breaking Yorkshire Bank Bike Libraries initiative. Visit www.ybonline.co.uk/tdy