Top British Junior Team went to Switzerland for the prestigious GP Ruebliland
https://www.gp-ruebliland.ch/ Team Manager Giles Pidcock sent us this report ..
"Weekend of 10th-12th September we took the team to Switzerland. It is such a beautiful place. Even the hillsides are perfectly presented, the grass all cut to a uniform height and nothing out of place. Situated between Basel and Zurich GP Ruebiland is a three day road race for junior riders. It is one of the big three stage races alongside Aubel Thimester and Ain Valromey. In this years edition there were five national teams along with the biggest and best funded junior teams in the world. But we were there too and had amongst our riders a world champion, a national champion and three riders going to world tour development teams next season.
The plan on the first stage was for each of our riders to ride for themselves, try and get in the days break. If it stayed to the finish then great if it came back or if we all missed the break then everyone was to ride for a sprint finish where our man Jed Smithson would try and win. Everyone had a go but nothing stuck so the team worked for Jed to win the sprint which he did magnificently. We had the same plan on stages 2 & 3 and Jed finished second on both of these. We went into the last (queen stage) leading the race on time and points. The last stage was brutal, super hilly and super hot. It split to bits on the hills. Being too tough for a rider of Jed’s powerful stature our plan was to play our second card in the form of Matty Brennan on the this stage. This we did and Matty did a fine ride to finish 7th on the stage and 6th overall
A great weekend by the whole team which was importantly supported by the Rayner Foundation Gateway Scheme and well worth the long drive over to Switzerland"
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