Moses parts the sea of riders to seal Tour of the Reservoir triumph

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Tom Moses produced a wonderfully-timed charge to pedal his way to victory in the HSBC UK | Grand Prix Series – Tour of the Reservoir Stage Two.

The JLT Condor man and Hayden McCormick of ONE Pro Cycling attacked the leading trio of Alex Richardson, Tom Baylis and Jonathan McEvoy, catching them with just metres to go.

And the momentum created saw them home first and second respectively, with Richardson taking a respectable third.

It sees Moses and McCormick take an overall first and second in the general classification, with yesterday's winner of Stage One, Ian Bibby, sitting third.

Aggression from the start

Unlike the bunched start of yesterday’s race, a leading group of half a dozen cyclists attacked straight from the off, opening up a steady gap of two-and-a-half minutes from the rest of the field as the race passed through its first stages.

Alex Paton was an early one to watch as he notched up the first two King of the Mountains victories.

Emils Liepins, Erick Rowsell, Mark Downey, Callum Ferguson and Joe Evans were the other riders jockeying for the lead with Paton in the opening quarter of the race.

The gap to the peloton grew steadily, with a couple of valiant attempts to catch the leaders made by Declan Hudson, Will Harper, Jake Alderman, James Tillett and Toby Atkins.

Harper and Atkins were the chasers, while Team Wiggins’ Tom Pidcock also made his move from the peloton.

McEvoy and Bayliss attack

Paton kicked on to register his second King of the Mountains victory ahead of Evans and Liepins, with the peloton, including yellow jersey wearing Ian Bibby, eventually catching them.

However, the bigger group did not last long, as Paton, Baylis, Downey, McEvoy, Matt Bostock and Rob Scott pulled away as they flexed their legs once more.

Indeed, it was McEvoy of Madison Genesis and ONE Pro Cycling’s Baylis who threw caution to the wind and opened up a gap of their own.

The pace was hard and relentless, with a couple of riders being dropped from the chasing pack, Bostock and Scott the chief hunters in trying to rein in Baylis and McEvoy.

However, the peloton chased down those making a break for the lead with 40km to go while McEvoy and Baylis remained 51 seconds clear.

Late drama around the reservoir

Alex Richardson then took matters into his own hands and make a sensational break from the peloton, eating up the yards and catching the two leaders.

After a brief period of jostling, the three leaders settled into a shared workload and pressed on with their advantage.

The trio kept up the pace, Richardson getting through the majority of the work at the front of the pack before attacking the others once more on Carrick Corner.

But three became five as the race drew to a close, with Moses and McCormick forcing their way to the fore in a sensational effort with just metres to the line.

Moses kept up his momentum to take the Stage Two victory ahead of McCormick, who finished second and Richardson in third.

Stage Two Results

General Classification

 

Gallery

2018 HSBC UK | Grand Prix Series: Tour of the Reservoir Stage Two