The 117km road race stage was always going to suit the teams character. With several hills and an uphill sprint finish, on paper the team was looking good.
The race started very fast, which meant that early on, numerous riders were getting dropped, especially once the race hit the first King of the Mountain point. Over the major climb, the race really got hard and by the top of the climb, less than half of the riders were left in the race. Thankfully four Campos - Avalon riders made the split.
The second time over the climb, more riders were shed, and it was down to less than 40 riders coming into the finale. Some late attacks meant that teams had to chase, but all were brought back for a bunch sprint.
Condy did well to take third in the stage, while the team was second overall thanks to great riding from Andy and Steve. Condy also lead the Masters Category.
Team Time Trial
Stage two was a 16km Team Time Trial. With plenty of wind about, the course was to be a big tail wind out and a strong headwind back. Judging the teams efforts was crucial.
Despite the team not being time trial specialists, a respectable time of 23:06 minutes was posted to take 11th spot.
Criterium
The Criterium was always going to be hard. More wind in the afternoon was sure to break things up, and within ten laps, the race was split up all over the place. Unfortunately Condy missed the split, and was forced to chase with the help of Andy and Matt. For more than 35km Condy, Andy and Matt chased hard to try to get across to the front group. Unfortunately Matt punctured close to the end, which broke the momentum of the chase and allowed the front group to stay away.
In the end, it was all about getting Condy into the points to maintain his lead in the Masters Category. As such, Matt and Andy did a good lead out to ensure Condy won the sprint for 30th and take some valuable points.
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