Stars of the Tour Series – Richard Handley

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10th overall in the Tour of Yorkshire and now Tour Series round winner – Richard Handley of JLT Condor climbs out of the shadows

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Stars of the Tour Series – Richard Handley

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A well known face in the domestic racing scene, Richard Handley of JLT Condor had his first individual win in the Tour Series on Thursday last week. Richard is known for being able to climb and his 10th overall in the Tour of Yorkshire is testament to his ability to ride at the highest level.

Those at the Ryedale Grand Prix last year will remember his ride there too and the unassuming man in black will not have been surprised many at his Durham victory. I’ve seen Richard at the front of less hilly crits before but Durham suited him and as last years winner Jon Mould (One Pro Cycling) said later, Handley attacked at just the right moment.

Richard enjoys to time trial as well and he combined his climbing with time trialling to put a lot of time into his rivals on the up and down Durham course. After the race, he was the centre of attention and congratulations and said “this is not normally my thing but this is quite a good circuit for me, I like it.”

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“I’m not brilliant at fighting for position and this course strings the peloton out and makes that it a bit easier. Being on your own, you can go round the corners at your own pace instead of having to sprint into the corners and slam on.”

“I was trying to ride for Kristian to be honest and I heard him shouting halfway through to go and I was kind of expecting for Kristian to come through at some point.”

“It is nice to be able to compete in the (Pearl Izumi) Tour Series which is such a big thing in the UK now.”

When I said he did a lot of laps of honour out there, he replied “that was more than I was planning! I was taking the climb quite steady though and trying to keep the pace quite constant on the climb and flat”.

“We (his team) had a slow start with the team thing with the Isle of Wight not going quite to plan and Felix (English) having a bad wrist and Graham (Briggs) ill, but the team is coming good now and hopefully we can carry it on.”

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Kristian House won for JLT Condor in Motherwell

Richard says he thinks that Durham was his last race this season in the Tour series as he heads off to Korea for a stage race there. Standing next to him as we spoke was his manager John Herety and when asked how three individual wins on the trot compares to his team victories in the past, he replied “it’s different!”

“You do get more from the media with the individual wins. When you are winning the series (team), it’s annoying that the individual winner is getting a load of publicity but this time, another team is leading the team series and my team is getting that publicity”.

“It’s not easy f or the organisers who are trying to make this a spectacle for television and they are tweaking the format and have made some changes this year. Personally, I’m not sure it’s working, but we’ll see how it goes and look at it at the end of the series. I’m happy though as we’re winning …”

On having had three winners in three races, individually, he says “it’s great to have three different winners already and I am pleased in particular for Richard. He’s one of the team work horses and while a lot of people know how good he is, it’s nice for him to put his hands in the air.”

With still four more venues to go at Croydon, Canary Wharf, Peterborough and Bath, John’s team still have plenty more opportunities to win more rounds individually even if sadly, because of illness and injuries to key riders mean the team race is beyond them with the format of five riders counting.

Look out for the men in black in their spiritual home in London this week.

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Ed Clancy kicked off the winning run for JLT Condor with victory in Aberystwyth 

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