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Tour Series 2010: Southport · 09/06/10

Round 5 of the Tour Series took place in Southport last night and Rapha Condor Sharp went into battle with a simple plan, win the race and let the overall classification take care of itself. With a four point gap to close on overall leaders Motorpoint, a win was the best way to guarantee that the gap shrunk.

The Southport course delivered a competition that was markedly different from the other rounds of the series so far, with a number of breakaways defining the flow of the evening.

Rob Hayles, Ed Clancy, Casey Munro, and Rapha Condor Sharp’s Dean Windsor escaped after the first hot-spot sprint creating a quartet of riders from each of the leading three teams in the series. For a time it looked like they might succeed, however with many of the lesser teams still represented in the main bunch the lead was gradually whittled away and they were eventually caught.

Next to go was another trio, again made up of the top three teams with Alexandre Blain, Krisitian House, and Ian Bibby who established a stable gap on the main bunch. In the last few laps they were joined by another four riders, Jack Bauer, Andy Tennant, and Dean Windsor (doubling the representation of Rapha Condor Sharp, Motorpoint and Endura), whilst James Stewart gave Raleigh a card to play in the front.

With the main field now significantly thinned by the relentless accelerations and decelerations on the course, the leading seven never seriously looked like being caught leaving only the questions of who would cross the line first and who would take the team overall. Blain answered the first question, attacking with 500m to go and holding off a fast finishing Kristian House. They were closely followed by Ian Bibby and Rapha Condor Sharp’s second point-scorer on the night, Dean Windsor.

There then followed an anxious wait and a heated debate amongst the team as to who had taken the overall, the minor placings from the bunch sprint would be decisive and ultimately the result went the way of the Rapha Condor Sharp team with Endura finishing second, indirectly lending the team a helping hand by reducing the score of Motorpoint.

Thursday sees the series move on to Kettering before the team head to the North East for the weekend where the British Cycling Premier Calendar resumes with the Beaumont Trophy.


photo by British Cycling
www.tourseries.co.uk

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