Report: Tour Series Round 2 Galashiels

Tour Series leaders Wiv SunGod and Pro-Noctis – Rotor – Redchilli Bikes p/b Heidi Kjeldsen extended their overall advantage following the Galashiels event on Wednesday (4 May) evening. Both teams took the all-important team victory on the night in round two as the series visited the Scottish Borders for the first time.

Report: Tour Series Round 2 Galashiels

This was a historic night in the 13-year history of the Sportsbreaks.com Tour Series as the women’s race followed the men’s race for the first time. Sunshine and two super quick races greeted Britain’s best men’s and women’s teams to the centre of Galashiels, with Scottish men’s rugby union head coach Gregor Townsend flagging both races away. In the opening men’s race it was Wiv SunGod rider Jim Brown who took his first individual win in the Sportsbreaks.com Tour Series. Brown and teammate Matthew Bostock had been at the forefront from the start, driving the pace around the short circuit to stretch the peloton, and drag a select group of riders clear as a crash split the peloton behind.

The evening then turned into a duel between Wiv SunGod and defending champions Ribble Weldtite with the pair of teams taking four of the top five spots. Dividing them was 17-year-old Noah Hobbs of Tekkerz, in fourth, who also took the fastest lap. “I’m buzzing! Taking the one-two in both rounds is really good and we’d like to continue that if we can,” said Brown (Wiv SunGod).

“We’ve got a good team, you know. We’ve got five really strong riders, so we can just get to the front and make it hard for everyone else. In the first five minutes we started putting the hammer down and the race split into a group of about 15. After that there were a lot of moves going, but I managed to slip away in the final and take the win.”

Wiv SunGod now hold a three point lead over the Wales Racing Academy at the top of the standings, whereas in the women’s series Pro-Noctis – Rotor – Redchilli Bikes p/b Heidi Kjeldsen have a six point margin over Torelli – Cayman Islands – Scimitar and Team Boompods.

Taking the women’s individual win was Megan Barker (CAMS – Basso), who has won three of the last four races held. Barker however was isolated in the front group dominated by Pro-Noctis – Rotor – Redchilli Bikes p/b Heidi Kjeldsen, but did enough to head Emma Jeffers (Jadan – Vive Le Velo) and Jo Tindley (Pro-Noctis – Rotor – Redchilli Bikes p/b Heidi Kjeldsen) in the final sprint.

“It was pretty tough for me personally,” said Barker afterwards. “I think we had quite a difficult night as a team, so I ended up quite isolated in that front group with the full Pro – Noctis team attacking me like five times every lap! “We just had to go for the individual win tonight so I just had to really stick at it, follow the wheels, not touch the wind as much as I could. I kind of was looking at the finish line every lap and figuring where I wanted to step out into the wind [and start my sprint].”

Speaking after defending both the Freewheel.co.uk Sprints jersey and with her Pro-Noctis – Rotor – Redchilli Bikes p/b Heidi Kjeldsen team mates the yellow Freewheel.co.uk leaders’ jerseys, Jo Tindley said; “It was really interesting actually [to see the men racing first]. They do race differently to us and they are going to be faster but it was interesting to see just how they attacked. They literally strung out on the first lap and how it all formed for through the bunch. So we got a good impression of how it would be for us.

“We were aware that the other teams were going to go out hitting it hard after [round one in Guisborough], so we just waited to see how it played out. It just stayed fast; it was a fast night, it was full on.”

Highlights of the Galashiels event will be broadcast on ITV4 at 7pm on Thursday 5 May. Racing resumes next Tuesday (10 May) with a return to the popular Sunderland circuit based around Mowbray Park in the city centre.

Action gets underway with the women’s race (5.30pm) followed by the men’s race (7.30pm) with both events streamed live on the Tour’s YouTube channel – youtube.com/thetourcycling – with no geo-restrictions.

Sportsbreaks.com Tour Series 2022 schedule
Round one | Guisborough | Monday 2 May – Results Men & Women
Round two | Galashiels | Wednesday 4 May Results Men & Women