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Rapha Condor Report: 2011 Ryedale Grand Prix
Event: 5th June 2011
Promoted by: British Cycling Yorkshire
Duncombe Park, Helmsley, North Yorkshire
Full Report and Images
Rapha Condor Report: Jonathan Tiernan-Locke stepped up into Rapha Condor Sharp's rapidly expanding 2011 winners club with a powerful win at the Ryedale Grand Prix, the latest round of the Premier Calendar.
Tiernan-Locke's first ever Premier Calendar win came at the end of a dry windy day in Yorkshire, when he bettered the rest of a six rider group that fought out the win on the long uphill drag into the grounds of Duncombe House.
The win marks a significant step forward for ‘JT' who only returned to the sport in 2008 after three years absence while he focused on his university studies and recovered from glandular fever. After the win, a satisfied Locke claimed:
"It's good to finally get a Premier under the belt. I've won plenty of National B races in the last few years, but I had always missed out in the Prems. My focus is more on the international stage racing we do, but it's good to get some recognition on a national scale. It was a long hard days racing, that is the kind of thing that suits me perfectly".
The six-man group had escaped from a larger 21-man break that had dominated the day's proceedings. The group formed inside the first quarter of the race when a 13-man chase containing Tiernan-Locke and Dan Craven joined the early move of eight riders that included Casey Munro and Ben Greenwood.
With four riders in the front, Rapha Condor Sharp could be content with the move staying clear. It soon became apparent, as the gap crept up to over three minutes, that it would be a different rider who would be going for the win for the men in black.
And it was Tiernan-Locke who shouldered responsibility for the team, moving clear with the five other riders inside the last thirty miles to after a succession of attacks over the courses frequent undulations by Dan Craven had softened up a majority of the break.
Team manager John Herety added: "It is particularly satisfying that Jon got the win here. We are having a great run at the moment, 5 individual wins in two weeks and each one taken out by a different rider. I was happy that any one of the guys we had in the front today could take their chance, and JT rose to the occasion".
While the team looks to improve on their remarkable win tally in the Tour Series this Tuesday, Tiernan-Locke and the rest of the road squad will head to the Ronde de L'Oise in France.
