Tomorrow’s Maldon Dengie Tour, the opening race to this season’s Premier Calendar series, will bring together Britain’s six UCI Continental teams for the first time this season on British soil.
All have strengthened in the closed season, symbolizing the new confidence flowing through British cycling. Success breeds success, they say, and a realisation among sponsors that the pool of domestic talent may go deeper than the shimmering surface glimpsed at Team Sky has attracted investment to match the ambition of the teams.
Wouter Sybrandy’s team represents a case in point. Competing on little more than the belief of team manager Matt Stephens and his backers, Ian Whittingham and Jason Turner from the London cycle shop, Sigma Sport, the team’s aggressive riding style, heavily influenced by that of its manager, last year caught the attention of City firm, IG Markets, one of the biggest backers of British cycle sport.
Sybrandy, a Dutchman whose performance in last year’s race through the Dengie marshes symbolised his team’s never-say-die attitude, now finds himself a senior member of team that boasts talent from cycling’s elite WorldTour and Great Britain’s dominant track squad.
“I was getting dropped, and making it back, and getting dropped again and making it back again,” Sybrandy recalls of last year’s race. He chuckles at the memory, but it was exactly this type of performance that made the Sigma Sport team so attractive to its new backers. Sybrandy’s ability was not in question (he began this season by claiming Chris Boardman’s 21-year record in the North Road Hard Riders 25 mile time trial), nor that of his senior teammates. What could they achieve with greater backing?
“The teams have just got so much stronger. Every Premier Calendar, and UCI races like the East Midlands, will have a stronger field than last year,” says Sybrandy, acknowledging the level to which Britain’s top teams have climbed.The new professionalism extends beyond kit, more expensive machinery and team cars to the style of racing. “Even about three of four years ago, it was a case of whoever got away first, stayed away. The breakaway almost always won. At the moment, it’s very Continental. It means you’ve got to try a little bit harder and race your own race.”
Sunday’s race will be of especial importance to IG-Sigma Sport, a team whose season will be defined by its performances in domestic races. “Everyone looks forward to racing at home, especially us: our main aim this year is the Premier Calendar,” says Sybrandy. Racing in Europe, something he enjoys, is a task undertaken to ensure the team is able to compete with their British rivals when the battle resumes on home soil. “We have to do it because all the other UCI teams are racing there and getting stronger. We know we have to do the same thing. We try to get a result, but it’s more preparation for the Premier Calendar.”
Pre-season, overseas training camps followed by an early return to competition at the Omloop van het Waasland has left Sybrandy feeling “pretty good” with the opening race of the Premier Calendar imminent. “Definitely for the longer races, I’m feeling pretty confident. I’ve done a lot more miles than I’d done at this time last year. I managed to get away in January to Lanzarote and in February to Tuscany and the weather has been good here. I’ve got a lot of miles under my belt.: I raced 200km in the UCI race in Belgium.”
Fortune will play a role in deciding the outcome of Sunday’s race, says Sybrandy, conceding that he was one of the few last year who finished the race without puncturing. But he also cites the local cross winds as a crucial factor, one that thwarted the breakaway to which he contributed in last year’s race. “I had just come back from a short training camp. I was pretty tired going into the race. I had a nice pace going along but not a lot of acceleration.” he recalls. “I ended up in a break of five or six. I got away with just about 40km to go. It was a strong group with all the big teams represented but when we got back on the March Roads it got pretty windy.”
Check back tomorrow – the morning of the race – for our interview with defending champion, Zak Dempster (Endura Racing)
