Sean McKenna’s OVO Energy Tour of Britain Diary – Stage 7 Hemel Hemstead to Cheltenham (185.1k)
Another long day today and it was made feel even longer with rain all day. 185 kilometres more or less, and there were showers throughout the day which wasn’t great.
It started in a heavy shower which made the start pretty sketchy. All the starts are in towns and when they drop the flag at the start in the morning it’s very technical.
The last few mornings have been wet and it makes getting in the break even harder. One of our lads, Regan Gough, did manage to get in the break of the day today.
They haven’t been given much of a gap all week to the breakaway which with all the big-name sprinters here, they’re not going to let the break a chance to get to the line. They’ve been keeping them on a short leash and I think today, like the other days, the most they’ve gained has been about three minutes. This means the pace was pretty high all day.
We heard rumours that Sky were going to go for it with about 10 kilometres to go. Coming into those last 10 kms, the gap wasn’t too big and the pace wasn’t too high so it seemed like it should be text book stuff.
We were talking to a member of Sky staff during the week and they told us about their recon car that drives the stage beforehand. Then with 10 kilometres to go, the route opened up into his wide-open field which was pretty windy and Sky whacked it. They made it very, very difficult for three or four kilometres. None of the GC lads suffered too much, but in fairness to Sky, it was worth a shot.
There haven’t been too many opportunities this week to gain time and those three or four kilometres of wide-open fields were an opportunity. They hurt us lads alright. The break did have some chance of hanging on but as soon as Sky did that, they came back quick enough.
Then it ended in another bunch sprint with all the big names. Regan did a great job in getting in the break and then our fast men, (Matthew) Teggart and (Mark) Stewart were up there at the finish. There were no real threats to (Jacob Scott) Scotty’s lead in the King of the Mountains in the break which was perfect. It was the ideal breakaway for us so Scotty got a day off.
There are a few big days ahead so hopefully he’s fresh and that we can help bring that jersey home come Sunday. In fairness, he does deserve it as he’s been riding out of skin.
