Curtis Neill wins the final stage, and the overall, riding for Cycling Ulster in Somerset (Photo by Matt de-B Photography)
Curtis Neill traded his Velo Performance kit for the red livery of Cycling Ulster at the weekend, going to the UK “for fun” and coming away with a stage victory and the final yellow jersey.
After a couple of seasons in France with Lyon Sprint Evolution, Neill has looked like a new rider this season, sweeping all before him at the Clive Tilley Two-Day in the same way he won at Rás Mumhan; taking it on from the front.
Neill was part of a small Ulster selection, also featuring comeback man Cathir Doyle and Conor Kelly.
“It was a fun race, which was very much needed as I’ve had a difficult past few months after a ligament injury at Ronde de l’Isard,” Neill said of the French stage race in May, where a crash forced him out after three stages.
“I knew I needed to make it as hard as possible to get that time back but thankfully Sunday was very hilly,” he added of losing almost two minutes to solo winner Archie Wright (Aero CLCTV) on Saturday’s stage 1.
“So me and the lads worked together, putting Cathir and Conor up the road early. And I marked the yellow jersey out until he’d used too much legs, and then attacked and caught the (two) leaders out front.
“We worked together for the last lap before attacking and winning it solo on the final run up the climb. I ended up putting almost five minutes into the yellow jersey and took it fairly comfortably.”
Neill said he went away with the aim of having fun at the weekend, racing with no pressure and objectives, and really enjoyed the experience.
How Ulster’s Neill won yellow
The 20-year-old stickybottle he went to the two-stage race with no objectives and simply looking to enjoying the race trip, but was delighted to take the final stage – over a very hilly route – solo by almost one minute.
The opening stage at the ‘Clive Tiley’ was 10 laps of a 13km circuit, on the Mendip plateau in Somerset. It was pan flat, over exposed roads, where crosswinds were a factor.
After repeated attacks failed to split the field, Archie Wright (Aero CLCTV) jumped with about three laps to go, riding solo to victory and taking the yellow jersey.
Behind him, Neill got clear in a three-rider chase group, finishing 4th, some 1:50 down on the winner. And though had faced into the second stage a long way off the race leader, Sunday’s race was very different as it unfolded on hilly terrain, which better suited Neill.
The riders faced a 5km climb – 10 per cent for 1km – negotiated on each of the four laps, over 124.8km of racing.
With two laps to go, Neill attacked on his own and bridged across to two riders up front. He caught the two men up front; dropping one of them on the penultimate lap and the other on the final passage of the climb to the line.
Neill won the stage by 55 seconds from Tom Guccione (London Dynamo), with Callum Orchard (Nopinz RT) 3rd at 2:31. Yellow jersey Wright, who went after Neill when he attacked but wasn’t able to get on terms, finished back in 5th at 4:37.
And that saw Neill win the race outright by 59 seconds from Guccione, with Wright 3rd on general classification at 2:51.