Down, but not out: Lewis Askey and his NSN teammates battled to the finish line to protect his Tour of Britain race lead, but it was not to be on a brutal day of racing in Yorkshire.
Askey finished fifth in Leyburn on stage four, but conceded the green jersey to Belgian rider Tim Wellens, who took second on the stage after a predictably strong UAE Team Emirates – XRG performance.
After a hard day of racing through the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales, Askey finished 27 seconds behind Wellens, and sits 21 seconds down on GC with only Sunday’s stage – which is expected to be one for the sprinters – remaining.
“Honestly, I can’t be disappointed with that,” says Askey. “Every single person in the team today rode incredibly. I also rode a really good race – I had a really good day. If I replayed that race and we were able to make decisions from a little control box somewhere, I would do everything exactly the same. We were just beaten by a stronger man.
“I really believe that we could have brought it back, you know, I really tried to keep as many people together as possible over the top of the climb. So then we could have the strength to bring him back afterwards. I pulled a little bit and then tried to save my legs because I knew the final would be quite hard. And yeah, I’ve got to accept that second [on GC] was probably the best I could do here.
“I think with maybe five or six kilometers to go, we kind of decided that it was probably gone, so I also knew that I couldn’t get dropped by anyone on the steep climb on the last couple of kilometers, because there are a few guys not very far from me on GC. I knew I needed to make sure I protected that.”
Having ridden tirelessly in support of Askey through two crosswind stages on Thursday and Friday, and then again on arduous terrain today, the British rider praised the work of his teammates.
He adds: “I’m super happy and proud of all the boys today. I can’t be disappointed – if you do everything within your control, and do everything correctly that we did, then you can’t be unhappy.”
Photos: SWpix.com