Geraint Thomas has said that he was always going to be up against after going away with just over fifty kilometres of the RideLondon Classic to go.
Thomas, who was caught with team mate Ian Stannard in the last few kilometres, said: “We wanted to ride aggressively today so I made a move on Box Hill hoping someone would come with me but I found myself out on my own.
“It was a bit of a spur of the moment thing but I’d bought my ticket by then so I just had to bite the bullet and try and go, but I was always going to be up against it.
“It’s great to race back here in the UK. Hopefully I’ll be back again next year.”
Continental Tyres Sprint champion: Jonathan Lastra, Caja Rural-Seguros RGA said: “I was very happy to have won the sprints. The atmosphere was incredible in every corner of every town there was a fantastic atmosphere. I’ve not seen so many people in so many places and I’d love to return to Great Britain to have another go.”
Continental Tyres King of the Mountains champion: Jean-Pierre Drucker, BMC Racing Team: “It was a pretty hard day to be honest and I went in the early breakaway which wasn’t actually the plan, but I tried to give it a go and defend my title as hard as possible.
“The only way we could get to the finish was with these guys [Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard], it’s just a real pity that things didn’t work out in the end.
“Overall though I enjoyed my experience again in London and the crowds like last year were amazing, so I’ll hopefully be back to ride again next year.”
Second placed Mark Renshaw of Team Dimension Data said: “At 200m to go I decided to make my move and it seemed like I’d got it. But I made a human error and moved off the barriers and that’s when Tom came through.”
Third:placed Michael Matthews of Orica BikeExchange said: “I would have liked to go with ‘G’ to mix it up but I just didn’t have the legs today, I worked hard to get back in touch and in the end it was a great job. I hope to come back with better legs next time.”
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