Tour of Britain hits Macclesfield

The Tour of Britain cycle racers power through Rainow just after 2 pm

Stage leader Ian Stannard, from Wilmslow, heads past Lidgetts Lane. Stannard’s 111-mile (179-kilometre) excursion from Congleton to Knutsford was achieved at an average speed of 26.2mph (42.2kmh) and included 5174 feet (1577 metres) of climbing. 

The upload from Stannard’s Garmin Edge 1000 GPS computer calculated that he averaged a huge 300 watts power output for the ride with an average heart rate of 146 bpm.

Followed five minutes later by the peloton

Ian Standard admitted he played to his home advantage to take the solo victory on stage three of the Tour of Britain, in East Cheshire, as the stage covered roads where the Sky rider lives and trains.

The 29-year-old lives in Wilmslow and admitted knowing the roads and climbs so well gave him the extra edge as well as the motivation to challenge for the win, his first in the Tour of Britain. Stannard was part of a four-man breakaway that went almost straight from the start, but attacked with 40-kilometres to go and rode alone to the finish.

“I was motivated to get in the break, I’ve been living on these roads since I was 18,” he said. “I didn’t expect the break to go quite so easily.”

Stannard was part of an all-British, four-man breakaway alongside Matt Cronshaw (Madison-Genesis), Kristian House (One Pro) and Graham Briggs (JLT-Condor). The riders amassed a gap up to seven minutes, with the peloton reluctant to mount a chase.

“We (Sky) are going for stage wins and I think we knew there was a bit of a chance of the breakaway staying away today with the climbs and the sprinters not quite sure how hard they are,” Stannard said.

“I rode quite hard quite early to try and establish that gap because I knew Jack Bauer [Cannondale-Drapac] was behind [trying to bridge across]. He’s fairly close on GC still so I didn’t really want him in the group.”

The 182km stage featured three categorised climbs, with the last – the Cat and Fiddle – the most challenging of the three. Cronshaw was the first of the four to get dropped before Stannard attacked Briggs and House on the Cat and Fiddle climb.

“I kind of felt it a little bit when we got on the climbs,” Stannard continued. “I thought I’ll go early and keep hitting them to try and break them up a bit.

“I went away straight away, so I just committed. Obviously I know the descents quite well as well so I tried to take a good advantage of that and got a good gap.

“You know how hard the climbs are and how to judge your efforts a bit more, certainly the blind corners you know how fast you can take them and that’s a big advantage.”

All images ⓒ ilovemacc.com2016