Rally Cycling landed in the United Kingdom this week for the Tour de Yorkshire. Expanded to four stages for 2018, the race runs May 3 – 6, taking place in beautiful Yorkshire County in northern England.
This is the last race in the team’s second European campaign of the season. Last week, Colin Joyce finished fourth overall at Castilla y Leon as Rally Cycling won the team classification. The Yorkshire roster includes Ryan Anderson, Jesse Anthony, Matteo Dal-Cin, Nigel Ellsay, Colin Joyce, Kyle Murphy, and Emerson Oronte.
Stage one covers 182 km from Beverly to Doncaster and is expected to end in a field sprint. Stage two from Barnsley to Inkley finishes on a two-km climb averaging eight percent in a stage reminiscent of classic European one-day races. Stage 3 comprises of 181 km of rolling terrain and is tailor-made for the breakaway of the day to succeed. Stage four is the queen stage from Halifax to Leeds. Over the 189 km course, the peloton will face six categorized climbs expected to shatter the peloton and decide the general classification.
After spending the last two seasons racing for a French pro continental team, veteran Ryan Anderson brings invaluable experience to the team.
Ryan Anderson on small roads, huge crowds, and race approach
“I’m looking forward to racing Yorkshire. I have seen the photos of this race and it looks really nice with all the people on the side of the road. It’s said that they had two million spectators throughout the race last year!
“I try to lead by example and keep the mood strong. I will do my best to stress to the guys that they need to fight for every inch of road this week. The roads are going to be much smaller, with little shelter from the wind. It’s going to be a different and good taste of racing that we have not had this year.
“I think the team will race aggressively. Almost treat this race as 4 one-day races. We can ride well for a GC result but we will need to be turned on every day. I think it’s in our best interest to try and have guys up the road and see if a smaller group comes across later in the stages. I think this will really help our odds of having good numbers in the final.”
Tour de Yorkshire Roster
Ryan Anderson
Jesse Anthony
Matteo Dal-Cin
Nigel Ellsay
Colin Joyce
Kyle Murphy
Emerson Oronte
