Celebrations as Devon stage proves a huge hit as crowds line the route
Rally Cycling's Robin Carpenter rode into the race lead - but the boss of the Tour of Britain believes more could be done in Sherford to make it a 'cycling mecca, residentially speaking'.
Last updated 7th Sep 2021
Hugh Roberts, CEO of the firm which runs the race, praised the Devon event and its long-term commitment to the race, but added about Sherford: "It ought to be car free and we hope perhaps we've inspired a few people to start thinking about things like that as well.
"I was a bit disappointed to see there wasn't much cycle marking in the roads there to be honest with you.
"Because I think they've got a golden opportunity here to turn this into a cycling Mecca, residentially speaking - and I think they might have missed the trick there."
In the race, Robin Carpenter, the 29-year old Philadelphian dropped breakaway companion Jacob Scott (Canyon dhb SunGod) with 25 kilometres remaining to take the victory by 33 seconds over British duo Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers) and Alex Peters (Swift Carbon Pro Cycling).
Stage One winner Wout van Aert (Team Jumbo – Visma) came home safely within the same group and now sits 22 seconds behind Carpenter, who is the first American rider to both lead theTour of Britain and to win a stage of the race.
He said: “We had 40k to go, we had crested both of the last KoMs, we still had five minutes and there was tonnes of downhill,” said Carpenter. “It seemed like a tailwind too so at that point there’s no chance to be caught. I was falling apart at the end but I made sure to be falling apart by myself.
“In the end leading the overall is great and it’s a big bonus but we’ll see about making it through the team time trial tomorrow with my team-mates.
“We were going to hit it hard anyway, We’ve got a couple of guys who are well suited to maybe go for the overall so we’ll do our best and we’ll see what happens but it’s going to be a challenge for sure.”
The race moves to Wales for Stage Three (Tuesday 7 September) as the 18 teams face an 18.2 kilometre time trial between Llandeilo and the National Botanic Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire.
Van Aert has already spoken of the importance of the stage against the clock for his Jumbo Visma team who won the modern Tour of Britain’s only previous team time trial stage in 2018.