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Tour of Britain 09 - stage 6 · 17/09/09
In conversation with one of the Rapha Condor soigneurs before this year’s Tour of Britain, he said something about his job that has become equally true of the race itself: “Same stuff, different location.”
And so it was in Bideford today as Edvald Boasson Hagen took another stage win in a race that is starting to bear an uncanny resemblance to groundhog day. As has been the pattern of the race for nearly a week now, an early break established itself, was allowed to taste freedom, then was reeled in seemingly at will by a Columbia led peloton into Bideford.
Immediately after the stage I asked Kristian House what had happened out there:
“Exactly the same as every other day, groups go in the right combination and then that’s it, they let it go… they chase it down, bring it back in the last couple of km, then a bunch kick.”
I then asked if there was anything left in the race at all for anyone else?
“Maybe something’ll happen tomorrow, it’s a harder day but all you can do is be there and try.”
Today was a special one for a couple of the Rapha Condor riders with both Simon Richardson and Tom Southam having strong ties to the South West region. I asked Simon Richardson what the atmosphere had been like in the race today:
“I was hoping for a soft move to go and I’d be in it, but it was cool, a beautiful days racing. We rode through my grandparents village, so they were out along with my mum and then my dad and my brother were elsewhere, it was good. Regardless of whether people are shouting my name there were just thousands of people out. A fantastic stage, really really good.”
After the stage fnished in Bideford I caught up with team manager, John Herety, to get his analysis of the stage and the tactics of Columbia who seemed to receive a little assistance from team CSF along the route today:
“I think there’s a reluctance on his part to use all his riders up completely, to empty the tanks on them all the way so to speak. But I think the type of riders that they have there gives them strength in depth. I’m pretty sure they’ll continue in the same vein tomorrow.”
And speakng about the contribution to the chase made by team CSF:
“Sometimes allegiances are made out on the road over the course of a stage or even over the course of a season and I just felt that on a couple of the climbs the CSF riders just took over at the front a little bit. I don’t think you want to read too much into that, that happens from time to time on races.”
So with strength in depth and friends on tap, I asked if there were any chinks in the Columbia armour to be exploited over the remainder of the race:
“I don’t think so, the type of riders they’ve got with the Tour de France in their legs, I couldn’t see any chinks in the armour, certainly didn’t today. They bossed that peloton just how they wanted it. Catching the breakaway at just the right moment. Textbook stuff and all credit to them, top team, top tactics.”
All of which raises the question; what now? With Columbia so in control and a flat stage in London to come after tomorrow I asked John if there is anything left for anyone else in this race and whether tomorrow represents the last throw of the dice for Rapha Condor in this years race?
“No, we still have two days. We looked at both these stages and the finale of tomorrows stage is a bit more difficult than today. There’s a KoM just before the finish and there’s an uphill into the finish area itself. A possible springboard for somebody whether or not it’s one of our boys I don’t know. I’d like to think it will be but looking the way that Boassen Hagen won into Stoke on an uphill finish he’s going to be difficult to beat.
Looking at tomorrow the only surprise I could see would be Boassen Hagen getting in a break to take the pressure off his own team, but even if it does we just have to go with the flow without an out and out sprinter.”
So finally looking ahead to London, I asked John what we could expect from the boys in black on their home turf:
“We’ll put on a show in London, its a flat stage, it’s something that we’re good at riding the criteriums as we’ve done this year. You’ll certainly see Rapha Condor riders off the front in London.”
The race for the GC may be over in many peoples eyes, but there are still fireworks to be lit between here and the capital, do not readjust your set…
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