It seems I may not be quite so in touch with modern youth culture as I once was. I simply cannot understand youngsters’ perennial ill-feeling towards ‘Haytors’. Haytor provided a sparkling summit finish on stage six of the Tour of Britain. What’s not to like?
Before the race, I told you to watch Simon Yates, but that was unnecessary in hindsight. Everyone watches the guy who wins a stage. He did no more than manage to sit in with a front group which was shedding riders all the way up the climb as Nairo Quintana and Dan Martin launched repeated attacks. However, when the line approached, he had not just enough strength in his legs to get past everyone, but sufficient to open up a gap of a couple of seconds.
It was an incredibly impressive finish. Next year he rides for Orica-GreenEDGE and will appear in a greater number of high profile races. He says it will be a learning experience for the first year, but I’ll be interested to see if it pans out that way on this evidence.
Stage seven
The Barhatch Lane climb comes pretty early on and shouldn’t really affect things too much. I’d guess it’ll be a sprint finish, although with a few early climbs, a break could get a good gap to keep things interesting.
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