In just his second race of the season, Yanto Barker finished 6th in the 180km Paris-Troyes race held yesterday.  The race was won by Florent Braard of the Agritubel team.  Topping off a good day for Team DFL, Phil Dixon also finished in the top twenty.

The race started disappointingly for the team, all ten riders missing the first major break after only 7km.  This group rode strongly to build up a lead of over 3 minutes before, with 100km ridden, Team DFL rallied at the front of the bunch, driving hard to reduce the gap to under 90 seconds.  This provided Barker with the springboard that he needed to manoeuvre into position, attacking strongly towards the end of the race to gain the team’s first top ten finish in a UCI race.

“I’m super chuffed with guys as they rode so well today as a unit.  Before today, I asked the riders for a top ten and a top twenty place and they delivered.  Everybody did their bit and the result at the end was just reward for their efforts.  Yanto badly wanted the win but is content with a sixth place finish.  We’re getting stronger with every race.”