VeloVeritas

After making such a good job of his diary for Pez in the Tour of Ireland, DFL professional Evan Oliphant will be giving VeloVeritas the low-down on his home Tour, which started in London today and finishes in Glasgow on Saturday.

We caught-up with Evan, in the DFL team car, stuck in traffic, listening to the chart show [at max volume] on Radio One, here’s what he had to say, (I think!).

- Reported by Evan Oliphant -

Evan, the Scottish Road Champion, is enjoying the Tour of Britain.

How did it go? Evan:

"Cavendish won with 2.27, the Russian Nikolai Trusov from Tinkoff was second at one second; best British rider was Geraint Thomas four seconds down for 4th; best from our squad was Dan Lloyd at nine seconds in 26th and I was 48th at 12 seconds. James McCallum pulled his wheel at the start, lost 55 seconds and was last!

"It was quite a tricky circuit, you didn’t need to brake but you had to come off the tri-bars at a couple of places because it was twisting and bumpy. At least one guy managed to crash, I saw him chucking his bike and crash hat down at the finish.

"I warmed-up around the circuit for a couple of laps, but also warmed-up on the turbo; I got some tips from Jason!"

Were you on the low-pro?

"Yes, it’s the first time I’ve ridden it since the Scottish 10 champs and that was weeks ago. That doesn’t help; if I rode it more I then would go better on it. I had a rear disc in too, it’s a good bike, but like I say, I could do with more practice on it."

Cavendish – a surprise?

"Yeah, I would have expected it if the circuit was pan-flat, but there’s a hill near the finish, he was fastest to that point too, so he’s King of the Mountains as well! I don’t think he can win it overall though, there are some very nasty climbs on Tuesday, that’s when the race will be decided, I think."

What do you think of prologues, in general?

"I think they’re a good thing, it stops things happening like did in the Tour of Ireland, where a break goes up the road on the first day and the race is effectively over for every one else. Tomorrow, T-Mobile will obviously take control for Cavendish and the result is still wide-open. The only thing about this prologue was that we had a five hour drive each way to get to it, and that’s not the best."

How’s the form?

"Yeah, I’m happy with it, I came out of the Tour of Ireland feeling good and I’m looking forward to this."

Your goal for the race?

"To win a stage, but that won’t be easy; there are only a couple of big teams here and that encourages every body to try and get-up the road, it’s less controlled and harder. Plowman Craven is going on the offensive early tomorrow, so I’m going to try and get with them, Gordon McCauley says that I have to stick with him."

Hoping to proove 'the Comic' wrong.

And the team goals?

"We didn’t have a team meet last night; we all knew we just had to get round the two kilometres as fast as we could! But we’ll have one tonight and I should imagine that we’re going to try and get Daniel into a good GC placing, he’s going very well just now."

Cycling Weekly wasn’t giving you much chance.

"No, I saw that, but it’s always like that with the team and 'the Cycling', I think perhaps they have an issue with Nick Collins [team owner]: they never say many good things about us."

Here at VeloVeritas, we have no issues with anyone, except Jimmy Leslie, of course!  We’ll be talking to Evan again tomorrow night - can he and Kiwi strongman McCauley stay-away, all day?

Watch this space.

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