REPORT: Tour Series: Round 1 Guisborough

Last year’s overall runners-up Wiv SunGod and Pro – Noctis – Rotor – Redchilli Bikes p/b Heidi Kjeldsen dominated the opening round of the Sportsbreaks.com Tour Series in Guisborough on Monday.

REPORT: Tour Series: Round 1 Guisborough

After a disastrous start to the series here in 2021, the first men’s race of this year’s event couldn’t have gone any better for Wiv SunGod, as Thomas Mein and Matt Bostock broke clear on lap one and almost lapped the entire field. Mein, the reigning British cyclo-cross champion, took his first individual series win ahead of Bostock after the pair delivered an unforgettable victory salute. Impressively, only 0.001s separated the duo across the line, making it the closest-ever finish in series history.

Behind, Matthew Gibson placed fifth in the rain-affected race to seal the team win for Tim Elverson’s squad. Wales Racing Academy impressed en route to finishing second on the day, ahead of TEKKERZ, TRINITY Racing and Saint Piran.

Although local rider Harry Tanfield led the peloton home in third respectively, defending men’s champions Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling only finished sixth in the team result. “We went on the first lap and just kept on going,” said Mein. “It was pretty much game over for everyone else when we got away, so that’s a bit of a dream scenario. Getting away with team-mates doesn’t happen often, so you’ve just got to make the most of those chances.

“It couldn’t have gone any better to be honest, so now we’ve got to carry on doing that for the rest of the series.”

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WOMEN’S RACE
Pro – Noctis – Rotor – Redchilli Bikes p/b Heidi Kjeldsen also produced a fine start in Guisborough as British circuit race champion Jo Tindley and Lucy Ellmore finished second and third in the women’s race. Tindley and eventual individual winner Sophie Lewis (CAMS – Basso) also broke away in the early laps, before Ellmore produced a fine effort to bridge across to the leaders.

Despite leading out the sprint, Tindley could only place second here for the second year running, as promising track talent Lewis pipped her to the line. Behind, Sammie Stuart (Team Brother UK – LDN) broke away from the peloton to finish fourth. Corinne Side was Pro – Noctis – Rotor – Redchilli Bikes p/b Heidi Kjeldsen’s third-ranked finisher in 12th as Rick Lister’s team started strongly in the series once again.

“The first round is always the one that you never really know how it’s going to go,” said Tindley. “You’ve done all this training but you don’t know how everyone else is going and so much could happen within one race. So, it’s really good to get the first one out of the way, we just work for the rest of them really. It’s a new circuit for round two, so I think we will be defending more than anything, and just seeing how it goes. We’ll try to keep an eye on things!”

CAMS – Basso finished second on the day to leave Guisborough with just a one-point deficit in the overall standings, with Team Boompods taking third. “It’s given me a lot of confidence [going into the next few races],” said Lewis. “It’s nice that we’re in a good place for the rest of the series. It was a really good race and I’m really pleased with how it went. I knew that last year about five riders went clear pretty early on, so I knew I had to be up there right from the start. I did feel a bit out numbered but I did what I needed to do.”

For full results, click here for the Men’s Result and click here for the Women’s result

Highlights of the Guisborough event will be broadcast on ITV4 at 7pm on Tuesday 3 May. Racing resumes on Wednesday 4 May with round two from Galashiels in the Scottish Borders.

A full afternoon of community activities will be followed by the men’s race (5.30pm) and women’s race (7.30pm) with both events streamed live on the Tour’s YouTube channel – youtube.com/thetourcycling – with no geo-restrictions.