You are here: home » news » Rapha Condor Sharp lead Tour Series

Rapha Condor Sharp lead Tour Series · 26/05/10

Shrugging off any negative affects felt after travelling in from Japan less than 24 hours before, the Rapha Condor Sharp team lived up to the Sharp name with a savvy tactical display to take the opening round of the 2010 tour series in Canary Wharf.

Things got off to a good start for the team in the event’s corporate challenge where Kristan House, as the nominated professional in the Barclay Capital team led them to victory, much to the delight of all in the Rapha Condor Sharp pit area.

Onto the main event, and as can often be expected at the first fixture of any new season, the opening laps of the race, whilst fast, were cagey and nervous with no-one willing to allow any moves gain a significant gap. Each flurry of attacks eventually resulting in little more than sore legs, particularly for those at the back who are forced to brake harder and accelerate more violently through each corner on the circuit around the Canada Square area of Docklands.

With the bunch largely intact as the one hour mark struck and the five laps to go board was put out, the Rapha Condor Sharp team began to bring the troops forward en masse. In contrast to other races where the individual win is the overall objective, the Tour Series is all about teams. The idea being to pack as many riders as possible into the top 10 in order to take the overall victory on the night and so, whilst the highest placed rider from Rapha Condor Sharp was Dean Downing in 3rd place, the fact that Graham Briggs and Dean Windsor were hot on his heels after a great leadout from Zak Dempster was enough to claim top spot on the leader board at the end of the first night.

Looking forward to Thursday night’s round in Durham, team manager John Herety announced one change to his successful squad. Out goes Dean Downing who led the squad home at Canary Wharf, replaced by 2009 Chester round individual winner, Darren Lapthorne. Explaining the reasons behind the rotation of the squad, team manager John Herety said:

“Some of the team rotation is a pragmatic response to a heavy race programme, Dean has had a few extended foreign trips so far this year, so he gets a couple of days off to rest head and legs and spend a little time with his wife and baby girl. We’ll expect to see him back in the squad in Portsmouth and then it’ll be someone else’s turn for a break. The change also enables us to respond tactically to the characteristics of the Durham course, something you’ll see us doing throughout the series. The Tour Series is no one-size fits all garment and if we want to stay in these leaders jerseys throughout we’ll have to approach each race very differently so the opposition can’t get the measure of us.”

photos by Michael Conway






<  ·  >