Tour Series Round Two – Sunderland Preview

The Tour Series moves on to Sunderland today for Round Two of the three event series.  

While the Sunderland course is the same length (1.3km) as Guisborough’s event opener, it’s basically a rectangle around Mowbray Park, with just four relatively open bends compared to Sunday’s seven tight 90-degree turns on narrow suburban streets. That means we’re likely to see a different type of race. Faster for sure, but the strength-sapping slope on the start/finish straight will take a toll during multiple laps and could be where race-winning moves are generated.

The women’s teams get things under way at 5:30pm, with 50 minutes of racing. All members of the Saint Piran Women’s Race Team came through Sunday unscathed, and with four of the five riders (the exception being Lucia Bruton) making their Tour Series debut, they’re on a steep learning-curve. They’re up against some very strong competition and while results are important, gaining experience is really the key goal this week. Tour Series debutante Evie Lane said:  

“I thoroughly enjoyed my first tour series experience. It was even more brutal than imagined, but the atmosphere and crowds made up for it! I love racing as a team and can’t wait to go again today.”

 The 75 minute men’s race starts at 7:00pm and sees two changes to the Saint Piran line-up. Stephen Bradbury, Jacob Hennessy and Tom Mazzone are back on the starting line, with Ollie Maxwell and 2019 Points Jersey winner Steve Lampier coming in for this race.

 Looking back on Sunday’s race, Tom Mazzone commented:

 “On reflection we were quite unlucky with the team result. We all rode well with Jacob, Stephen and myself in the front group until the crash took us out of team contention. Until that point we were in a good position as a team and individually.”

 As for today’s race:

 “We’re really looking forward to Round Two in Sunderland tonight. It’s a very different course to the tight and technical course in Guisborough, a bit of a draggy circuit, open and wide.  It’s great to have Lamps and Ollie in to give us some fresh legs and we’ll be looking to be aggressive and race the same as we did on Sunday. But with a better outcome at the finish hopefully!”

ITV4 highlights show – Wednesday 11th August, 7pm