| The
Tour of Britain 2007 
On September 12th 2007 the Tour of Britain came to Worcestershire and took
in some of the same route as the Jack Clements Memorial Little Mountain Time Trial,
including the famous ascent of Ankerdine. Stage 3 of the UCI 2.1 classified stage
race started in Worcester and finished in Wolverhampton, taking in Malvern, Stourport
and Bridgenorth on the way. Young British star Mark Cavendish (T-Mobile)
had won both the prologue at Crystal Palace and Stage 1, but the yellow jersey
had passed to Russian rider Nikolay Trusov of the Tinkoff team by the time the
Tour rolled out of Worcester on Stage 3. Large crowds had gathered on Ankerdine
and eagerly awaited news of how the stage was unfolding. The publicity cars ahead
of the race soon told us that a small break of eight had jumped clear not long
after the start of the stage and that break was to stick for the rest of the day.
So the enthusiastic spectators on Ankerdine cheered on the 8-man break consisting
of Matt Goss (CSC), Ben Swift (Barloworld), Freddy Bichot (Agritubel), Martin
Maaskant (Rabobank), Roger Hammond (T-Mobile), Zak Dempster (South Australia.com),
Paul Manning (Great Britain) and Rob Partridge (Recycling.co.uk). Five or so minutes
later the main peleton arrived and made light work of the nasty ascent. Matt
Goss rode very strongly all day and achieved a comfortable stage win in Wolverhampton,
followed in by Bichot in second and Hammond in third. British rising star Ben
Swift, meanwhile had claimed the King of the Mountains jersey by the end of the
day, a jersey which he held until the end of the race. Now, all riders
in the Little Mountain TT are timed up the climb of Ankerdine so we thought this
opportunity too good to miss. A chance to time the professionals and make a comparison!
The lead group of the Tour of Britain were therefore timed in exactly the same
way as Little Mountain riders and the results are below. Observers commented that
the pros seemed to be taking it easy up Ankerdine, but looking at their time,
can we really be so sure that they weren't trying very hard to make it look easy?!
| Who |
Event | Note | Year |
Time | | Lead group | Tour of Britain |
Breakaway of riders | 2007 | 3mins 11sec |
| Daniel Soltys | Little Mountain TT | LMTT
Combined Hill-Climbs record-holder | 2007 | 3mins
24sec | | Stuart Dangerfield | Little Mountain
TT | Fastest recorded in LMTT | 2000 |
3mins 12sec |
|
