Ethan Vernon’s strong return to road racing continued on Friday, as the Olympic medalist placed second in Newark-on-Trent on stage 4 of the Tour of Britain.
This matched Vernon’s result in Tuesday’s opening stage in Scotland; both were won by Frenchman Paul Magnier (SOQ).
Behind, Stevie Williams finished safely in the peloton to move one day closer to being crowned this year’s overall winner.
”It was another good day for the team,” says Vernon. ”The boys pulled together brilliantly just like they have in the other three stages to defend GC for Stevie and help me for the stage.
”I had to launch my sprint early and paid the price in the final 50 meters, but it was another day of learning. We still have two more chances to get a sprint victory.”
IPT worked with the sprinters’ teams all day to keep a three-rider breakaway in check. Simon Clarke, in particular, deserves a mention for contributing to the chase for nearly 120 kilometers.
Despite the flat parcours, the changing wind direction in the final 50 kilometers added a little tension to proceedings, but race leader Williams was never under pressure. His lead on GC stays at 16 seconds.
He says: ”It was a pretty straightforward day. There weren’t many open sections but enough to keep us on our toes. We had to stay in position at the front of the peloton, and Simon did a brilliant job for us.
”It was all hands on deck in the final trying to get Ethan the victory. I feel like we did a good job for him; he opened it up but unfortunately he got pipped on the line.”
