At the end of a week in which the British cycling establishment has been rocked by an unprecedented sequence of controversies, organisers of the Tour de Yorkshire expressed the hope last night that teeming crowds might have lifted the mood of a troubled sport.
Despite unsettled weather, an estimated two million spectators lined Yorkshire’s roads over the three days of the race, evoking memories of the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in the county two years ago, with Thomas Voeckler, of France, claiming victory in a sprint finish along Scarborough seafront.
The ripples of unease have spread so far across the sport, though, that reminders of the previous week’s events were never far away. Peter Kennaugh, the British champion, spent significant chunks of the race at the front of the peloton, ushering Nicolas Roche towards a second-place finish and helping Team Sky to win the team classification.
Kennaugh had been forced to apologise for comments he made to Emma Pooley last week over her remarks about the row over sexism in the upper echelons of British cycling, which led to the resignation of Shane Sutton, the technical director.
In third place yesterday came Adam Yates, the leading British rider in the race. He also happens to be the twin brother of Simon, whose positive doping test for terbutaline was revealed last week. Orica-GreenEdge, the Australian team for whom both the Yates brothers ride, have said that the test was an administrative error on their part and accused British Cycling, the governing body, of leaking the news of Yates’s positive test.
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Had Adam been distracted by the controversy surrounding his brother? “Not at all,” he said, but declined to answer further questions on the subject.
The interest of the crowds for the second edition of the Tour de Yorkshire seemed unaffected by the sport’s turbulent week, with spectators massed on the banks high above the finish line in Scarborough. “It’s been a tough week for cycling and I hope this has been a morale boost,” Sir Gary Verity, the chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said last night. “We’ve seen fantastic racing, giant crowds, even bigger than last time, and a real feel-good factor.”
On Saturday, the second stage of the men’s race and the one-day women’s race had been blighted by a blackout of live television coverage, due to problems with the plane used to provide aerial pictures by ASO, the organisation that also runs the Tour de France. The problems were described yesterday as a freakish technical hitch, although there was intense frustration that much of a race that featured Lizzie Armitstead, the world champion, leading out the peloton in her home town of Otley, had been missed by television viewers.
“We were very disappointed and surprised as well; it won’t happen again,” Christian Prudhomme, ASO’s cycling director, said yesterday. “In 31 years at bike races I’d never seen this happen.”
Yorkshire’s success in again attracting huge crowds, though, has reinforced the intention to bring the Tour de France back to the county. “It’s not a question of if, but when,” Prudhomme said. “I think the Yorkshire crowds are the best in the world for cycling.”
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In the final stage of the men’s race yesterday, over 198 kilometres through the North York Moors and along the east coast, Voeckler was almost left behind by a three-man break with 22 kilometres remaining from Yates, Roche and Steven Kruijswijk, but Voeckler stayed in touch and moved clear with Roche over Oliver’s Mount, sprinting clear in the final stages.
A further blow to British cycling came in the Alps, where Chris Froome had a testing week in the Tour de Romandie and Ben Swift, his Team Sky colleague, was taken to hospital after a crash. Froome won a stage on Saturday, but failed to prevent Nairo Quintana from winning the general classification yesterday. “It’s been a tough week for us as a team,” Froome said. Swift, who suffered minor injuries, tweeted: “Took a kicking all week and then crashed heavy.” He might have been speaking for British Cycling as a whole.
Results and standings
Third stage: (Middlesbrough to Scarborough, 196km): 1, T Voeckler (Fr, Direct Energie) 4hr 51min 57sec; 2, N Roche (Ire, Team Sky) same time; 3, A Yates, below, (GB, Orica-GreenEdge) at 9sec behind; 4, A Turgis (Fr, Cofidis); 5, S Kruijswijk (Neth, LottoNl-Jumbo) both same time; 6, L Petter Nordhaug (Nor, Team Sky) at 41s.
Final overall: 1, Voeckler 13hr 05min 16ses; 2, Roche at 6sec behind; 3, Turgis 16s; 4, A Yates 17s; 5, Kruijswijk 21s; 6, Petter Nordhaug 52s; 7, G Moscon (It, Team Sky) 53s; 8, N Arndt (Ger, Team Giant-Alpecin) at 1:13s; 9, S Pauwels (Belg, Dimension Data) 1:20s; 10, D Smith (NZ, ONE Pro Cycling) 1:21s; 11, T Stewart (GB, Madison Genesis); 12, B Hermans (Belg, BMC) both same time.