Tom Stewart claimed victory in the second Velothon Wales, as part of a festival of cycling in and around Cardiff
The roads of Wales saw one of Europe’s biggest closed-road sportives for the general public combined with the UCI Sanctioned 1.1 professional road race.
After a thrilling 194km ride, it was Stewart, riding for Madison Genesis, who hung on to his breakaway lead in the finishing straight to take the victory ahead of Stolting Service Groups’ Rasmus Guldhammer in second and NFTO’s Ian Bibby in third place.
Victory for the 26-year-old Stewart came a week after he won the Lincoln Grand Prix and an impressive showing last month in the Tour de Yorkshire.
“I am so chuffed. I have never gone as deep as this over the last four weeks in my life and today was another record again,” admitted Stewart.
“As a team we really deserved what we got in Lincoln last week and this is another great moment for us. It was a brilliant race, really hard and I decided to take it on.
“First time up the Tumble was steady and then the second time was much harder and that’s when I made my move.
“I felt really good on Caerphily the first time, got away with a couple of other riders and then got caught. Then I just went again and got a gap going over the top.
“I can’t sprint for toffee so I decided to go for it. I kept telling myself ‘don’t get home tonight and regret anything, just dig deeper and deeper’. What a relief it was to win.”
The challenging course takes in some of the country’s most scenic roads, as well as the infamous ‘Tumble’ and Caerphilly Mountain climbs.
Alongside the professional riders, Velothon Wales welcomed 12,000 registered amateur riders to take on the challenge of the 140km route around South Wales.
Anyone wishing to register their interest in taking part in 2017 can visit www.velothon-wales.co.uk for information.
