Rally Cycling’s Emerson Oronte finished fourth on the opening stage of the Tour de Yorkshire on Thursday. The 182 km stage from Beverly to Doncaster was expected to finish in a bunch sprint but Oronte and his five breakaway companions managed to stay clear by a mere five seconds. Colin Joyce continued his impressive season by sprinting to ninth on the stage.
Friday’s stage two will take the riders west to the town of Barnsley, where Rally Cycling will look to place a rider in the breakaway and keep Oronte placed high in the general classification.
Emerson Oronte following the stage
“I was pretty motivated to show up for this race and am happy that I was able to make an impact so early. But I’m also bummed to not make a bit more of an impact. Honestly, I’m pretty bummed to come so close to the podium. Tomorrow is another day and we will try again.
“The plan was to have someone in the break to go for KOM points. I managed to find a move in the opening seven km or so that went away. One sign of actually gaining experience over here is the fact I can better determine when sprint teams are going to block the road. I could see some bigger teams gathering at the front and I knew the road would narrow in a few km so I jumped on the next move I could and low and behold, it stayed away.
“I honestly didn’t believe the breakaway would survive until about two km to go. We were all committed and no one played any games all the way to the finish.”
Stage 1 Results
1 Harry Tanfield (GBr) Canyon Eisberg 4:08:12
2 Alistair Slater (GBr) JLT Condor
3 Michael Cuming (GBr) Madison Genesis
4 Emerson Oronte (USA) Rally Cycling
5 Thomas Baylis (GBr) One Pro Cycling
6 Max Walscheid (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:00:05
7 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Vital Concept Club
8 Emils Liepins (Lat) One Pro Cycling
9 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling
10 Riccardo Minali (Ita) Astana Pro Team
General Classification after Stage 1
1 Harry Tanfield (GBr) Canyon Eisberg 4:07:58
2 Alistair Slater (GBr) JLT Condor 0:00:03
3 Michael Cuming (GBr) Madison Genesis 0:00:10
4 Emerson Oronte (USA) Rally Cycling 0:00:14
5 Thomas Baylis (GBr) One Pro Cycling
6 Axel Journiaux (Fra) Direct Energie 0:00:16
7 Max Walscheid (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:00:19
8 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Vital Concept Club
9 Emils Liepins (Lat) One Pro Cycling
10 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling
