Tom Mazzone Sprints to Saint Piran’s First UCI Victory

It was a big day in northern France as Saint Piran took their first win as a UCI Continental team. And, coming a week to the day before the start of the Tour of Britain, the timing couldn’t have been better.

 Stephen Bradbury, Ross Holland, Steve Lampier, Tom Mazzone, Ollie Maxwell and Jenson Young were among the 106 starters lining up for the 179km UCI (1.2) Grand Prix de la Somme

Saint Piran was involved in some of the early moves on a blustery day, with Jenson Young first out of the blocks in a group of 8-10 riders up at the front. However, his efforts were sabotaged by a puncture and then a mechanical issue, forcing him to drop out of the back of the break for a bike change.

The bunch then split up further in the wind, with Steve Lampier in the front group. He was soon joined by Tom Mazzone and Stephen Bradbury, with Ross Holland and Ollie Maxwell also coming back up.

The peloton came back together before another breakaway formed, going out to a 3:55 lead coming onto the finishing circuit. Saint Piran exerted their authority in the peloton to bring the break back, with Ross doing most of the initial work at the front. With four laps to go, Steve then dug in to pull the break back, and those efforts were rewarded as the gap closed with about half a lap to go.

With Ross and Steve’s work done for the day, that left Ollie Maxwell to look after Stephen and Tom on the long, dead straight run-in to the finish. With about 1.5km to go, Ross took Tom to the outside of the bunch on the right and put him into a good position, with Stephen going out to the left.

Describing the sprint that made him only the second British winner in the race’s 35-year history, Tom Mazzone said:

“Ross put me into a good position with just over a kilometre to go, and after a roundabout about 800m from the line, from there I had to do most of it myself.

I managed to squeeze up the outside on the right and kicked into my sprint from there. By then, Stephen was already sprinting on the other side of the road. With about 250m to go, it was pretty much a drag race to the line. At the finish I had about half a bike length advantage, so it wasn’t super-tight. Overall, it was just a brilliant team victory, with Stephen finishing 9th as well.”  

With all eyes on next Sunday’s opening stage of the Tour of Britain in Cornwall, Team Principal, Richard Pascoe said:

“We kept the same framework from when we were an Elite team when we stepped up to Continental level, and it now feels like a lot of hard work is coming together. We’re looking to further strengthen the squad, with further announcements to follow this week. So watch this space.”