Tour of Britain flies through the South Hams on its second leg

Hundreds of people in the South Hams lined the streets today to wave the competitors in the Tour of Britain on as they whizzed past.

Monday, 6 September, saw the second leg of the eight-day race take place between Sherford and Exeter, taking place in 25⁰+ heat and brilliant sunshine.

In the South Hams, the cyclists came through Yealmpton, Modbury, Ashford, Aveton Gifford, Churchstow, Kingsbridge, Frogmore, Chillington, Torcross, Strete, Stoke Fleming, Dartmouth, Norton, Hemborough Post, Halwell, Harbertonford, Totnes and Ermington.

There were three sprint sections to the second leg of the tour, one in Kingsbridge, one along Slapton Line and the third in Tavistock. Alongside those fast sections, the cyclists had to battle 3,499 metres of climbing.

Deborah Beaumont captured the moment the pack came flying past her house at the bottom of Aveton Gifford hill. She said the leaders were a couple of minutes in front of the main pack, but that the bulk of the riders were gone in around 20 seconds.

To highlight the speed of the leaders she said: “Apparently when the main pack were on Bowcombe Bridge, the leader was climbing Kingsbridge Hill.”

In Kingsbridge, people lined Fore Street with Devon flags to wave to the competitors and cheer them on as they made their way up the gruelling hill towards Churchstow, Aveton Gifford and beyond.

 

 

 

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Kingsbridge Town Councillor Julia Wingate was the one responsible for getting the Tour of Britain to come up the main street in the town.

She explained: “It was one of those Zoom meetings way back in the winter and [the organisers] were telling us the route that came through Kingsbridge, and how they wanted to engage with the residents and the community and yet they were routing the cyclists around the relief road, so I just asked if they could come through the heart of the town, which is up Fore Street.

“They said they would look at it with their traffic advisors and they came back and said the hill wasn’t too bad and it would be a good challenge for the riders so they changed the route!”

Our member Image Three Sixty also took some great photos as the competitors coming out of Kingsbridge: 

 

 

 

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For those following the race, Robin Carpenter (USA) made a surprise performance to win solo in Exeter and move into the lead.

The Tour of Britain stage report states: “Carpenter dropped breakaway companion Jacob Scott (Canyon dhb SunGod) with 25 kilometres remaining to take the victory by 33 seconds over British duo Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers) and Alex Peters (Swift Carbon Pro Cycling).

“Stage one winner Wout van Aert (Team Jumbo – Visma) came home safely within the same group and now sits 22 seconds behind Carpenter, who is the first American rider to both lead the AJ Bell Tour of Britain and to win a stage of the race.”

“We had 40 kilometres to go, we had crested the last SKODA KoMs, we still had five minutes and there was tonnes of downhill,” said Carpenter. “It seemed like a tailwind, too, so at that point there was no chance of being caught. I was falling apart at the end but I made sure to be falling apart by myself!

“Leading the overall is great and it’s a big bonus, but we’ll see about making it through the team time trial tomorrow with my team-mates.

“We were going to hit it hard anyway, We’ve got a couple of guys who are well suited to maybe go for the overall, so we’ll do our best and we’ll see what happens. But it’s going to be a challenge, for sure.”

Good luck to all the riders for the rest of their race - much rather you than me!