Feature – Post Race Reactions FriendsLife Women’s Tour

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Gordon Wiseman talks to Lucy Garner & Sefan Wyman after stage 1 of the FriendsLife Wmen’s Tour

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Feature – Post Race Reactions FriendsLife Women’s Tour

Stage 1 – What might have been…
Lucy Garner (Great Britain) – “That was alright, pretty hectic for the whole stage, constantly fighting for a space. It wasn’t particularly fast in terms of sheer speed but it was just on and off all day long and every one was just trying to get to the front, it got a bit like carnage at more than one point.

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“I think with it being the first stage everyone wanted to keep out of danger and not lose time right at the start. Some of the teams wanted to push on at the front but didn’t get away, it was a case that none of the breaks were really strong enough to get away.

“For me there weren’t any particularly difficult parts on the course. Coming up to the mountain point that’s where the racing went harder but it wasn’t really hard for any particularly long time. It went hard, sat up, went hard, it was that sort of thing.

“I don’t really know at this point what went wrong for me in the sprint. It started early at about 500m to go, then it seemed to come back together, I got boxed in, a rider started slowing then drifted across to me and that was really it and I just rolled across the line. To me it feels like the stage hasn’t yet finished. That slightly uphill finish, into a headwind, it would have suited me perfectly as well. There was just nothing I could do. Now I’ll start thinking about tomorrow”.

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Stefan Wyman (Team manager, Matrix Fitness – Vulpine) – “We had the whole team in there, we were going strong and then at km33 there was a crash that looked fairly innocuous as to why it happened but it took down Harriet” Owen “and she chased back on for 10 or 15km and she’d just got back on her rear mech snapped off so she had to change to her spare bike. And just as she was getting back on the race doctor blocked the road as there was a serious accident with one of the Dutch riders so we weren’t able to give Harriet any help to get back and so we sort of lost her at that point.

“And Mel Lowther who was riding on junior gears was having a real problem when they started to go downhill but at the finish Jessie and Helen were still in there fighting for the finish and so we’ll live to fight another day. I think having two riders in the peloton coming into the finish is pretty good and it’s what we said yesterday we’d be really proud of so it’s pretty amazing we can say that and ‘what might have been’. So maybe tomorrow it’ll be a case of trying to sit in and recover over the first 60km of the race and then what we can do from there”.

Tweet of the Day? – “Our school@GeddingtonClass had a brilliant time waving our flags and yelling our support – thanks to organisers!”

 

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