Part Five: The Continental Divide
Timothy John
“Controlling a race is a hallmark of top-flight professional cycling. Well-drilled teams with specialist riders tasked with specific duties delivers results for the best but can make the racing dull and formulaic.
“In recent years, The Tour of Britain has offered the best of both worlds: challenging the heavyweight squads with demanding routes and inviting a handful of British squads from professional cycling’s third tier, who race in a far less predictable fashion.
“Harry Tanfield has seen the Tour of Britain from both angles. In 2017, he made his race debut with the third-tier Canyon-dhb squad, before returning in 2019 with WorldTour outfit Katusha-Alpecin.
“So how does a team’s budget and squad depth affects its tactics and ambition? Here’s Harry.”
Harry Tanfield
“Everyone [in a WorldTour team] has a goal, has a job to do during the race, whereas in a UCI Continental team, it’s all about the breakaway. It doesn’t matter who it is, someone has to be in the breakaway, because the team needs to be on television for the whole day.
“Ideally, it’s not one guy, because one guy might be good at the end, in the sprint. Ideally, they’ll wing it by following some good wheels. Everyone else is searching for the breakaway, and, obviously, only one guy can go in it. The other guys are just left to support the other rider. They can’t really do much for them anyway. They’re better off just following the lead outs of the faster guys.
“In a WorldTour team, it’s much more organised. You might be given a specific role: for one person to be in the break, or even no one to be in the break, or for someone to be on the front in anticipation of the final to set-up a certain rider. Someone else might be assigned to handing out bottles. I remember The Tour of Britain being quite a free race, when I was with Katusha.
“We had a plan in the final for one or two guys to be ‘either/or’. We did everything we could to position them well and lead them out into the bottom. If you’re told to ride the final two kilometres into the climb or the final sprint then you’ve got to do it. You have to keep the speed high to keep your rider at the front or on the wheel that he needs to follow.
“It’s all-in for that team effort, getting a result for that one guy, as opposed to other riders trying to pick up something for themselves.”
Timothy John
“Each year, Race Director Mick Bennett must balance the regulatory demands of a UCI-sanctioned professional road race with the expectation among British fans that the best domestic teams will be given a chance to test themselves against the visiting squads of the UCI WorldTour.
“Larry Hickmott has watched the race organisation’s varied attempts as an interested observer, noting the effect of an unpopular qualification system on British Cycling’s National Road Series and the maturity of the home nation’s strongest teams, who now carry the fight to the big budget squads for success each year in jersey competitions.”
Larry Hickmott
“I’ve never spoken to Mick about the demands that the organisation faces in terms of how many teams it can put on the road, but it would certainly be nice for the sport, or better for the sport, in two ways:
“Having all the British teams in the race does help the sponsorship and does help keep the sport at a higher level in this country than it would if only one or two teams were in the race.
“The other thing was the qualification system for The Tour of Britain. It had a huge effect on the racing in the Premier Calendar events, and not a good one. It was quite negative racing because every team manager had The Tour of Britain as their ultimate goal, and a lot of tactics would revolve around that.
“It depends on the riders who the UCI teams here have to play with. You take Ribble-Weldtite. They’ve got a guy called James Shaw, who is sorted with another team for next year, but will still be going into this race, no doubt, with a lot of ambition, after two top-10 finishes in big races this year: at The Tour of Slovenia and The Tour of Norway.
“Canyon-dhb, I think, have won the last two sprint jerseys and now they have a rider who won the KOM jersey as well in Jacob Scott, so they definitely have the strength. Those competitions are no longer an easy win: the sprints competitions and the KOM jersey etc.
“There are teams, like Canyon, who have the strength-in-depth to go into this race on a good level, compared to the other teams. Whether all of the UCI teams have that strength is another matter.”
Timothy John
“The final constituency concerned with the Tour of Britain’s great Continental divide are the riders. For British riders on third-tier ‘Conti’ teams, the Tour of Britain represents a shop window with few rivals.
“Harry Tanfield caught the eye of UCI WorldTour suitors by winning a stage of the Tour de Yorkshire in 2018. He believes that talented British riders can make a positive impression on their WorldTour rivals by climbing strongly, following the right wheels and negotiating finales with intelligence and panache.”
Harry Tanfield
“I think the guys who can naturally climb pretty well just have to look for the riders, look for the teams, hold your own and not get in the way, but just be at the front, on the wheels you need to be on, and, naturally, the people who are around you will just drop away, and if you’re good enough, you’re good enough: you’ll stay up there.
“You’re always looking to follow a good wheel, especially if it’s a mountain finish, or a hard, hilly day: as it’s getting more selective, just being in a position to follow. If it whittles down to a group of 20 guys and you’re still there, that’s a great opportunity for you as a UK rider to demonstrate your ability.
“If you’re on the attack, and it doesn’t work out, or if you gamble in the final and try to follow the wheels, you’ve just got to play it as the race unfolds.”