Stewart races clear to win it for Madison

And having triumphed in the Lincoln GP the previous weekend, Madison’s 2016 “go to” winning machine, 26 year old Tom Stewart, picked up another winner’s bouquet at the end of Sunday’s 174km Pro Race, part of the second running of the Velothon Wales.

Madison’s team manager Dave Povall was clearly active throughout the race cajoling and encouraging his men to stay together and stay near the front and it was – again – Tom Stewart that topped the team’s finishing positions with fourth on the night but closely followed by Gruff Lewis, Alex Blain and Matt Cronshaw to give the team a hard fought – and very wet – first Series team win of 2016.

The Bradwell Abbey based team are now sitting in second place overall just four points behind the JLT Condor outfit.

From Edinburgh the team travelled to south Wales for Sunday’s 1.1 ranked UCI race, brimming with confidence after their recent results.

Stewart, in the form of his life, broke away to take the win, and said: ““I can’t sprint for toffee so I decided to go for it. I kept telling myself ‘don’t get home tonight and regret anything, just dig deeper and deeper’.

“What a relief it was to win. I’m just chuffed for everyone involved in the team.”

In the women’s Matrix Fitness Grand Prix series, Drops Cycling’s Alice Barnes was part of an elite group of four riders who broke away very early on in the race.

And with that group including the 2014 and 2015 Matrix series winners – Eileen Roe and Nikki Juniper respectively – it was no surprise that they held their lead to the chequered flag.

But it was local girl Roe who held on to take the win in the tightly fought sprint leaving Barnes to take home the Sprints jersey on the night.

For Drops it was another successful outing as they finished the race with Ellie Dickinson and Annie Simpson also in the top ten to become the first round team series leaders.