Tour of Utah stage winner Bauer on squad, just one British rider selected
Three days from the start of the 2011 Tour of Britain, the Endura Racing team has confirmed a cosmopolitan lineup for the event. Just one English rider will be on the six-man team, with directeur sportif Julian Winn stating that standard and current form was more important than patriotic sentiment when selecting who would ride.
“The Tour of Britain is a very important race for us and a great shop window for Endura. If we have riders, foreign or British, who are performing at their best at the current time they will get a ride – simple,” he said. “British or not does not make any difference. We have currently the best selection lining up. The sixth person was a very difficult choice. We need to cover options, meaning we need riders for overall (which we have) and riders for sprints. Ian Wilkinson fits the latter category and is British!”
Missing from the line-up is Rob Partridge, who said that he was ‘gutted’ not to ride the race. He was the highest-placed British rider last year, being the only one in the top ten, and said that he was psyched to perform strongly again.
Winn insists that the fact the team has passed him over is simply a reflection of an improving standard. “The only other British rider who was in contention was Rob Partridge and he was 8th overall last year, so it shows how much the level of the team has risen. Everyone has earned their place,” he insisted.
The confirmed riders including Tour of Utah stage winner Jack Bauer, Iker Camano, who was a stage winner and overall victor in the Cinturón Ciclista Internacional a Mallorca, plus Rene Mandri., stage winner and runner-up in the Tour de Normadie. The squad also includes former Swedish time trial champion Alex Wetterhall and Paul Voss, who both had high placings on stages of the Tour of Utah, and round 6 winner of the Halfords Tour Series, Ian Wilkinson.
Winn makes it clear that the race is a major target for the team. “Our goal is to be competitive. A stage win and a top 3 overall on the GC is possible. If we ride as the strong team we are, then we should be in with a stage win. We have the capabilities of finishing as top team overall,” he said.
To that end, the team has worked hard to get ready. “We have had races prior to the Tour of Britain which help build a pyramid of form to the event,” he explained. “The Tour of Utah was part of that. Then we have a chosen to not only race at altitude in Utah but then follow it up with a training camp at altitude in La Molina, in the Spanish Pyrenees.”
Winn is himself a former international and recognises that there are bigger teams in the race. However he also knows that Endura Racing will have higher motivation than some of those, given that it is one of its biggest races of the year and is a major chance to impress on home soil. He feels that with the right mental approach, the smaller squad can take on the giants and leave their mark.
“You just have to be ready and be willing to fail to succeed,” he said. “Be aggressive and take chances. The main challenge is being attentive. With six man teams you need to be very alert. If the right combination goes you won’t see it again. We can’t afford to miss those scenarios….”