Tour de Normandie final report.

 

The biggest win of Alex Peters's career to date was not to be. This despite his finishing in the same time as the winner but loosing out to the time bonus system. On the penultimate Stage the whole Tour de Normandie field was broken in the end by our lad from Stokie and his crazed drive for a solid overall lead. It was only a slip-up in the final run-in where just 500m from the line Peters hit something and went to ground. Getting up and to the line he lost the 45 seconds advantage he had established by attacking and destroying all of his GC opponents (and their teams) in heavy rain in the last half of the stage. 

Alex Peters
"With 85km to go I attacked and bridged to a 7 man group that was up the road. Then my team mate Davy Gunst who was with them rode as hard as he could to get me into yellow, after his sacrificial effort I had to do it on my own"
 
This audacious act was not on the menu; Peters dishing out high stakes, risk all pain was a fresh approach for this race. By the finish SEG staff, race officials, riders and followers were impressed by something special in road racing they had been witnessing. There was no such thing as sitting and waiting for Alex 'the dramatic' Peters.

SEG Racings Director Sportive 
Micheil Elijzen

Taking the yellow leaders jersey to wear during the last stage (by virtue of finishing points but in the same time as Dimitri Clayes) was some consolation. Alex needed to cross the line ahead of his Belgian adversary on the last stage to Caen. He and SEG Racing did all they could but it was not enough to prevent those unreal bonus seconds coming into play.

Being on the the last stage podium for two reasons; as best young rider (the white jersey winner) and runner up overall, Alex was left to reflect on how close he had got to top step time. Second hurts, he may have preferred third place as not being too close to No.1 is easier to live with. 

Alex Peters
"The support I see from my old club back home matters to me and it really helps when I'm trying my hardest"

Alex's next stage races are; Tour de Bretagne 25th April - 1st May (Blaireau campagne) and **Ronde de I'Isard 21st - 24th May (Pyrenean high mountains) **Keep an eye out for this one as CC Hackney are looking for more supporters to head down for this. The destination town and more news here and on CCH's facebook page soon.

White & yellow jerseys back in Hackney

The team and bike done good

Koga cycles
SEG Racing