Endura Racing have continued their dominant start to 2012 by winning the Tour Doon Hame.
Jonny McEvoy won today’s final stage and claimed overall victory ahead of teammates, Erick Rowsell, who won the opening stage, and Scott Thwaites, first across the line on stage two.
The Scottish squad had four riders in a break that lead for most of the 180km final stage from Moffat to Annan.
Jonny McEvoy escaped in the closing miles and held off the challenge of Team Raleigh’s Bernie Sulzburger to snatch the win.
He told British Cycling he had only targeted the stage victory and was surprised to have won overall.
“I’m sorry to Erick that I’ve taken the jersey off him, but at Endura we ride as a team and so the important thing is that we’ve kept yellow. Also today, with my solo win we managed to take the top three places overall and also won all the jerseys on offer.
“It’s been a cold and wet weekend in Scotland but I’ve loved every minute of it.
“I did well in this race last year and it was a big target for me, so it’s a job well done.”
Further plaudits for Endura came in the points and king of the mountains classifications, won by Scott Thwaites and Alexander Wetherall respectively.
An early breakaway of 13 riders gained a lead of four minutes, driven by McEvoy, Rowsell, and Thwaites with teammate, Rob Partridge.
Team Raleigh-GAC’s Russell Hampton and Bernie Sulzberger, and Team IG-Sigma Sport’s Wouter Sybrandy represented Endura’s rivals in the breakaway, and Sybrandy delivered his usual gutsy performance, reeling in a late break from McEvoy and Sulzberger attacked just four miles from home.
But when McEvoy kicked again, no one could follow him, and he held on to win by eight seconds from Thwaites and Sulzberger.
