DOMINANT TEAM PERFORMANCE AT THE DAVE HITCHEN 2-DAY

Joe Evans, Matt Langworthy and Cameron Jeffers showed strength and class at the Dave Hitchen 2 Day in Lancashire this weekend.

Stage 1 consisted of a 100km flat and exposed road race which saw a breakaway of twenty riders go clear in the early stages. Both Matt and Cam made the move and helped to drive it to gain two minutes on the bunch. Coming into the final two laps, a Pro Vision rider attacked and many riders in the breakaway were put under pressure to keep contact. Matt pushed on and initiated a move of five which quickly gained a minute on the rest of the breakaway. Coming into the headwind sprint finish, Matt finished fourth whilst Cam managed to chip off the front of the remains of the break and finished between the front group and the remains of the breakaway. Unfortunately Joe punctured in the bunch and without neutral service had to ride the last lap with a flat.

Stage 2 was a short 7km TTT. With two riders guesting for Saint Piran, the team rode well finishing 3rd on the stage 15 seconds off the pace placing Matt 3rd on GC just 15 seconds down and Cam just over a minute down on GC going into the final stage.

Stage 3 was set to decide the outcome with the top 5 riders all within 20 seconds of the yellow jersey. More bad luck for Joe saw him caught up in a crash on the first lap. A small break of three riders with no GC contenders went clear early and stayed between 1 and 2 minutes off the front of the race. Matt and Cam both made moves on the finishing climb but were heavily marked so couldn’t get across. Throughout the race small groups of two and three riders managed to breakaway from the peloton and bridge over to the growing break at the front of the race including a move which Cam made with a few laps to go. With 4th and 5th on GC making the move, Cam sat in and waited for the finish where he placed second. Meanwhile Matt was struggling to get away from the bunch but with one lap to go, he made a big move on the finishing climb and got clear on his own. He almost managed to close the gap of two minutes to the breakaway but finished solo thirty seconds behind Cam’s group. However, having left the yellow jersey behind, Matt defended his 3rd position on GC just 22 seconds down and Cam finished 6th on GC 1:02 down.