Watson shines in the rain at Tour of Wales

Watson shines in the rain at Tour of Wales

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Sam Watson led home a PH-MAS/Paul Milnes Cycles one-two in Stage Four of the Junior Tour of Wales after finishing 12 seconds clear of teammate Jim Brown.

After the first race cancelled due to treacherously wet conditions, Watson knew victory was paramount to his general classification chances.

He sat in the peloton for most of the race allowing an early three-man breakaway of Ben Healy, Liam Curley and Oliver Knight to get away.

That trio set the pace and opening up a gap on the bunch but as the riders took to the A40 for the final time, with around 20km of the race to go, several riders jumped off the front of the chasing bunch and reeled in the breakaway group.

With 5km to go, Watson made his move and decided to go for it – storming to victory ahead of Brown, while East Midlands Region’s Alex Haines and Charley Calvert of Team Backstedt/Hotchllee were third and fourth.

“The whole race was flat out,” he said.

“It was so much harder than the previous days race. It was disappointing that the morning’s stage got cancelled, I felt it suited me better and was prepared to really go for it, thankfully I was able to do it in the afternoon.”

The win puts Watson in 15th place in the general classification, 58 seconds behind race leader Leo Hayter going into Monday’s final stage and the infamous finish at the top of The Tumble.

Results

General Classification

HSBC UK 2018 | Junior Tour Of Wales Day 3