Matt Goss led home an Antipodean one-two-three in Newbury to take his second stage win in The Tour of Britain on Monday (September 8th), which now moves on to Burnham-On-Sea on Tuesday.
The Australian sprinted clear of Garmin, Chipotle’s Julian Dean and Chris Sutton to take victory, while Alessandro Petacchi came home sixth to retain the race lead, albeit on the same time as Goss, with Petacchi’s team mate Danilo Di Luca just two seconds back.
After rolling out through a packed Milton Keynes, the peloton set a high pace as a number of riders tried to break clear. The first group to establish a lead contained Britain’s Steve Cummings and three others.
Another seven riders joined them briefly, before the entire group was swept up by a fast moving peloton.
Goss benefited from the experience of lead out man Stuart O’Grady who guided his teammate safely through Newbury, setting him up for the best line out of the final corner and allowing him to hold off the fast finishing Garmin pair of Dean and Sutton.
Speaking after the stage ended, Goss was happy to have his resumed winning ways on British roads. He said: “I’ve had a lot of success around here in the last few years and it was great to get out there and do it again today. This year there is a fantastic array of sprinters in the race so I’m delighted to have been able to get to the front.”
“It was a tough course out there today – especially over Streatley Hill. It’s going to be an interesting next couple of days because I know tomorrow is going to be a really tough day so it’s going to be a matter of making sure I get through that and see how I get on. There is no team plan for our boys – we are just riding day to day.”
“Looking at the weather forecast tomorrow we’re going to need something to keep us afloat on the way round so we’ll concentrate on doing that and see where we are at the end of the day.”
Commenting on his 40-mile breakaway, Ian Stannard said: “It was a horrible head wind to be honest, so I regretted what I was doing, but it was ok. There were lots of local people out, lots of crowds and plenty of schools so it was good support.”
“At first when my lead went up quite quickly I thought it was going to be successful, but at the second King of the Mountains I lost my rhythm and that sort of did for me in the end.”
“Tuesday sees the riders tackle the races’ South West Stage in Devon and Somerset, tipped by many to be one of the hardest day’s racing in this year’s Tour of Britain.”
Racing gets underway at 10.15am in Chard, before the riders tackle 185km of undulating roads on their way to Burnham.
Click here for the complete guide to the Burnham-On-Sea stage
