A yellow weather warning, a wrong turn off course, a delay in live TV coverage, a super-late nature break from the pre-race favourite, and a surprise stage winner…
Yesterday’s opening stage of the Tour of Britain through Aberdeenshire, won by Israel-Premier Tech’s 22-year-old neo pro Corbin Strong, was eventful to say the least.
Will Palmer/SWpix.com
Before the young Kiwi lived up to his name by outsprinting the Ineos Grenadiers’ Omar Fraile on the uphill drag to Glenshee Ski Centre to take his maiden pro victory, the peloton was forced to endure a stereotypically British day of racing, slogging through the wind and rain on their way west from Aberdeen.
The grim, blustery conditions and early downpour not only resulted in a plethora of black raincapes throughout the peloton, but a loss of live TV pictures, which were delayed for 90 minutes thanks to the wind at the finish line.
Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
The lack of live coverage meant we missed Bora-Hansgrohe’s Marco Haller’s collision with a race motorbike (forcing the Austrian to abandon just 15 minutes into the eight-day race, as well as the bizarre moment the bunch strayed off course on the outskirts of Inverurie, 25 kilometres into the 180-kilometre stage.
“The organisers sent us the wrong way,” Ineos Grenadiers rider Magnus Sheffield told CyclingNews at the finish. “Fortunately, I was able to catch on as I’d just flatted on my front wheel. I was actually a bit happy I got to come back a bit easier.
“It was only three or four hundred metres, but it was really funny. I was coming through the cars and it seemed like everyone looked super confused.”
Back on the predesignated route, soon-to-be-retiring Alex Dowsett put in a sterling turn on the front in the thankfully improving conditions to reel in the day’s breakaway of Stephen Bassett, Matt Gibson, Martin Urianstad, Matthew Teggart and Jacob Scott, on the wind-ravaged slog to Glenshee.
In the final five kilometres, one of the pre-race favourites Tom Pidcock – that’s world cyclo-cross champion, Olympic mountain bike gold medallist and Tour de France stage winner on Alpe d’Huez Tom Pidcock to you – appeared to be struggling towards the back of the peloton, seemingly suffering after a day of foul weather and gritty Scottish roads.
While Strong proved the strongest (sorry), and took the race’s first leader’s jersey, Pidcock (who says he won't be travelling to Australia for this month's road worlds - more on that later) appeared out of nowhere to place fifth on the day, with his presence at the back of the bunch later attributed, not to sore legs, but to an untimely call of nature:
Pidcock confirmed after the stage that it was a number one rather than the full Tom Dumoulin that prompted his late chase back on to the bunch.
“I needed a pee,” he explained at the finish.
“I was supposed to be on Omar’s wheel, that would have been ideal, then maybe I would have won. A bit too relaxed, really.
“It was a big headwind, I just made a mistake and didn’t go to the front early enough. The Tour was my last race, the depth meant there’d be a lot of trains going up this massive road, here it just strung out.”
The riders will be glad to hear that there is no weather warning in place for today's stage in the Scottish Borders from Hawick to Duns. I'm not sure if the blue skies will last all week, however...