One Pro Cycling, the team co-owned by England cricketer Matt Prior, made a dream debut in the Pearl Izumi Tour Series, taking maximum points from the Ryde double header opening round.
The televised Series visited the Isle of Wight for the first time, with Ryde hosting a team time trial and circuit race, with One Pro Cycling led by Yanto Barker winning both events, to lead the Pearl Izumi Tour Series by two points from Madison Genesis after round one.
On a circuit drying from a morning of torrential rain, One Pro Cycling took the win in the opening team time trial, consisting of two laps of the 1.3-kilometre Ryde circuit with a time of 3:44.504, four seconds quicker than Madison Genesis with Pedal Heaven in third, their best ever result in the series.
Four hours later and One Pro Cycling, now wearing the red and white series leader jerseys, again showed their strength, placing all five of their riders in the leading pack behind lone individual winner Tom Scully.
Throughout the race One, along with NFTO and Madison Genesis were active at the front, with the former two chasing first Tom Stewart and then Kiwi Scully, as the Madison Genesis riders took the race, with its new time based format, to the other teams.
With NFTO disadvantaged by their Australian criterium champion Steele Von Hoff suffering a mechanical on the Union Street climb mid-race, weight of numbers allowed One Pro Cycling to record the evening's lowest race time, with all five of their riders in the front group.
Individually Madison Genesis' Commonwealth Games champion Scully took the race win, with teammate Stewart leading much of the race to sweep up the intermediate sprints and pull on the new-for-2015 Chain Reaction Cycles Points Jersey.
Highlights form Ryde will be shown on ITV4 at 8:00pm on Friday 15 May, with a repeat at 10:45am on Saturday 16 May.
Round two of the Pearl Izumi Tour Series takes place in Redditch on Tuesday 19 May at 7:30pm and features the opening round of the women's Matrix Fitness Grand Prix Series at 6:00pm.
Results
Round One, team time trial
Round One, team result (criterium)
Round One, individual result
Round One, Chain Reaction Cycles points classification
