Corbin Strong (Israel-PremierTech) scored his first professional win, Oscar Onley (Team DSM) finished in eighth at the opening stage of the AJ Bell Tour of Britain in Aberdeenshire - as cheered on by a great Scottish crowd.
Oscar Onley, who usually rides for Team DSM’s Development squad, but was promoted to the Professional Squad for this week
“To be honest, I was a wee bit disappointed. The boys worked perfectly today and put me in a really good position – behind the Ineos boys. I questioned which wheel to follow and ended up on the wrong side and I was sprinting into the wind. But Top ten on the first stage I’m quite happy with that.
The Scot will look forward to tomorrow’s stage which goes through his hometown of Kelso.
“There are a few punchy climbs tomorrow, but I think the sprinters will get over them. But for the rest of the week, there’s plenty of open racing and it puts me in a good position for that.”
The New Zealand said on his first professional win
“It was slightly uphill from 18km out, the break was there and looked like they could have gone all the way. Alex Dowsett done a good job closing the gap in the final kilometres and I had experienced guys that kept me calm because it was the first time coming into a race of this level with confidence that I could perform and take the win”
On whether he could hold the jersey for the rest of the Tour, the New Zealander was quite confident:
“I’d like to think I can hold it to the end but there’s some really hard stages in there and the Tour of Britain is pretty unpredictable”
Terrible weather conditions faced the riders as they made their way from Union Street in Aberdeen to Scotland’s highest public road at Glenshee.
A deluge of rain and wind met the riders as they headed northwest from Aberdeen to Inverurie, before ascending the first climb of the day.
A five-man move had escaped including Matt Gibson (Human Powered Health), Jake Scott (Wiv-Sungod) and Matthew Teggart (Wiv-Sungod) and had built a five-minute lead at one stage.
However, a peloton full of WorldTour talent was keen on contesting the finish and had reeled in the advantage of the escapees to just over a minute as they hit the climb up of Glenshee, as the rain had dissipated.
The catch was made in the final kilometres, but race favourite Tom Pidcock, was seen by the race cameras out of the back of the peloton – the Olympic Champion has gone for a natural break in the final 7km.
A reduced bunch sprint ensued with a group of 50 riders contesting the victory including the three Scots contesting the victory.
Richie Porte (Ineos-Grenadiers) produced a fantastic leadout for Tom Pidcock and Magnus Sheffield but it was the Kiwi Strong that came through past them to claim the win and head into the leaders jersey with Onley coming home safely in the Top 10.
Calum Johnston (Caja-Rural) retained a strong general classification position finishing 45th but on the same time as the Onley – 10 seconds behind Strong when incorporating the time bonification – while Crockett was 19 seconds behind in 62nd place.
Johnston told Scottish Cycling after the stage:
“In the final I had decent legs, not the best but for the first stage alright, and I managed to finish in the group, so not so bad.”
Stage 2 will take place tomorrow and will see the riders head from Hawick to Duns in the Scottish Borders – with the riders facing far more punchier roads in that the south of the country can provide.
