Trek: Team Scienceinsport-Trek Start Their 2008 Campaign With Two Stage Wins at The Bikeline 2 Day, the opening Premier Calendar Event

This past weekend the team sent a squad of four riders to the first round of the British Cycling Premier Calendar Series in North Wales. This involved a 2 day 3 stage race, the opening stage being a 1.6km time trial which has proved to be crucial in recent years for determining the overall general classification. The team resplendent in their new kit, consisted of Ian Wilkinson, Dave Collins, Richard Kent and new signing Richard Wilkinson. This was the first outing for the team on their newly issued Trek Madone’s with Bontrager XXX carbon tubular wheels and Bontrager finishing kit.

Notable absentees were Ian Bibby, David Fletcher & Ross Creber who were competing in a UCI MTB race in Ireland where they finished 4^th, 7^th & 9^th respectively. Tim Lawson was also absent, attending a training camp in Majorca on behalf of Science in Sport.

In the opening time trial, “The Race Of Truth,” Ian Wilkinson and Richard Kent were the only 2 riders to break the 3 minute barrier before the so called ‘ Big 3 ‘teams took to the start line. One by one they tried to beat Wilks’ time of 2min.50sec with a number of them on specialised time trial bikes and wheels with aero helmets. In the end he took the stage win and finished 2 seconds ahead of his nearest challenger. Richard Kent finished a superb 8^th position with Dave Collins in 14^th and Richard Wilkinson 67th. After the stage Ian Wilkinson said “That was superb, we worked a lot during the preparation for this one and that worked well and conditions were real similar to last year. I had a regular race bike as its uphill. Maybe if you ride a TT bike all the time its worth it but I ride a mountain bike & cross bike, and to be fair, don’t have a time trial bike. I think it would be a mistake to put yourself on a specific bike like that just for two minutes, and it’s uphill. I don’t see what advantage I’d gain – probably just damage myself for the afternoon stage!”

Resplendent in the leaders orange jersey Wilks and his team mates took to the start line for stage 2 which consisted of a 56k road race. This was a tough stage due to the windy conditions and the amount of traffic on the circuit. A number of attacks went away but nothing stuck. With about 20k to go amid confusion in the peleton due to a police car and fire engines attending an emergency on the circuit a small group escaped and unfortunately the ScienceinSport-Trek riders missed the split. Evan Oliphant of Plowman Craven took the stage win and Dean Downing took 3^rd to put him in the Orange jersey for the final stage. Wilks finished in the peleton 35 seconds down on the leading group.

Commenting on stage 2 Wilks said “It was grim out there. All the time there was stuff going, small groups going and coming back. I got caught at the front a fair bit but I was going with the tactic of being in it and then you don’t have to chase it but you can’t be in everything. It’s a tough day tomorrow and not having the jersey takes the pressure off and maybe I’ll come from behind. If we don’t do anything else, we had a stage win.”

Stage 3 was a rolling 138K stage and after only a few kilometers a break of 8 got away, including Dave Collins who was one of the main drivers. This group had riders from all the leading teams with the exception of the orange jersey’s team Rapha Condor Recycling. For the next 90K the break stayed away with the time gap averaging about 45 seconds. This left the RCR squad the task of chasing the break for the full 90K. Eventually the break got caught and this left the scene set for the big climb of the day and the final run in. On the climb a group of 26 riders escaped including Wilks and Richard Kent. At the end of the stage Wilks took a fantastic win beating the Downing brothers in the sprint for the line after brilliant work from Kenty.

Commenting on the win Wilks said “That was quite a tough stage. Rapha made it easier for me as I didn’t have to jump about and try to get in breaks. I was able to keep cool and when we got to the hill in pretty good condition, I got across but there were too many people that wanted to hold it together.”

“It looked like Russell was going to go for a long one and I went after him and looked behind and they were all on my wheel so I let him go. Then I turned around and my man here Kenty did a blinding little dummy attack and everyone went after him and that freed me up.”

“I was waiting and waiting because every year I come in here [to the finish] and I get it wrong so I waited and waited and then at 200 metres I went down the inside and done Russ (Russell Downing) and that is a good scalp because he is a cracking bike rider. Dean won it overall but I’m happy with two stages, the race of truth yesterday and today we won the long road stage. We’re not one of the big three teams but we’ll keep on trying to pick a few off”

This was an excellent start to the season and with Bibby, Fletcher, Creber & Lawson back for the next round, the Girvan Stage Race, the team will be looking to defend the title they won last year.