Tom Stewart’s bid to win the opening stage of the 2016 Tour de Normandie was thwarted in the closing stages, as he finished seventh in the prologue.
Tom Stewart’s bid to win the opening stage of the 2016 Tour de Normandie was thwarted in the closing stages, as he finished seventh in the prologue.
As the tenth rider on course Stewart faced an agonising wait as 133 riders lined up to challenge his time.
Completing the 6.4-kilometre test around the streets of Carentan in eight minutes 19 seconds – at an average speed of 46km/h – Stewart became the early leader and remained unchallenged for much of the afternoon.
Erick Rowsell came close – three seconds down on Stewart – but it was not enough.
However, after over 100 attempts, Stewart’s challenge was undone by Coen Vermeltfoort (Cyclingteam Joins – De Rijke), who posted a time of eight minutes 13 seconds.
With over 20 competitors remaining, Stewart's time only slipped a further five places, leaving him seventh overall – a testament to the quality of his ride.
Erick Rowsell’s time of eight minutes 22 seconds was good enough to take 17th, with Alex Blain 42nd, a further ten seconds back.
Taylor Gunman, Tristan Robbins and Felix English took to the course on road bikes and all finished safely, with a view to tomorrow’s stage.
After the finish, Stewart explained that the results left the team in a perfect position ahead of stage one.
“I wasn’t expecting to do particularly well today, so I’m happy on a personal level – but for the team it’s perfect” he detailed.
“We’re not in the top three, so we won’t be looked at to make the race, however we didn’t lose any significant time.”
Despite tomorrow’s stage one being the longest of the race at 201 kilometres, Stewart expects this to have little effect on the style of racing.
“From here in it will be chaos as much as possible. The distance of each stage is almost arbitrary because as far as the race will go it is chaos.
“That will suit us as we have Erick, Alex and myself in a strong position after the prologue and three strong guys to back us up.”
You can follow the Tour de Normandie on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram throughout the week.
Result – Tour de Normandie prologue:
1. Lucas Liss (Equipe National d’Allemagne) 00.08.07
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7. Tom Stewart 00.08.19
17. Erick Rowsell 00.08.22
42. Alex Blain 00.08.32
84. Taylor Gunman 00.08.44
120. Tristan Robbins 00.09.05
126. Felix English 00.09.22
