Ireland's Matt Teggart rode a stormer at the Tour of Britain. But his time in the race has come to a premature end (Photo with thanks to @LeCol)
Matt Teggart on his early exit at Tour of Britain
Matt Teggart has said he is hoping to recover and get back into action as quickly as possible after withdrawing from the Tour of Britain.
The Irish rider was a non starter when the race rolled out of Barrow-in-Furness for the 168km stage 6 to Whinlatter Pass.
He had ridden the Tour de l’Avenir before being called up late with Team Wiggins to ride in Britain.
A crash in the U23 race in France wasn’t enough to force him out of that race. But a back injury picked up in that spill has worsened in recent days.
And while he was continuing to press on, the situation escalated and he and his team decided he should withdraw.
Advertisement
Matt Teggart told stickybottle he would now have scans to determine exactly what the issue was.
He added he was very disappointed to have to leave the race early, with three stages remaining.
Thursday's TTT was to be Matt Teggart's last stage in the race; a back injury ending his challenge with the sprints jersey still in the balance (Photo: Simon Wilkinson-SWpix.com)
Teggart went clear for most of stage 2 in a breakaway. And while it was caught, he collected maximum points at all three sprint prints.
That put him into the lead in the intermediate sprints competition; a jersey he held for two stages.
Related News
While he relinquished the sprints jersey, he did so only on count back as he was equal on points with new leader Matthew Holmes.
The Madison Genesis rider was also on nine points, which he did not add to on yesterday’s stage. It means Teggart would at the least have gone into the final weekend of racing with a great chance of taking that classification.
And he said it was very hard to give up the opportunity of trying again to go into a clear lead in the classification.
However, his back was deteriorating and he needed some rest to recover, along with further investigation of the issue.
His disappointment aside, he said the experience of having had a jersey in such a big race had been very enjoyable.
Thoughts from @OfficialWIGGINS on today’s brutal 14km Team Time Trial Stage from Simon, the team’s director sportive and @MarkDowney03. #LeCol #BackYourself #Wiggins #OvoTOB ?: @bikerlawrence pic.twitter.com/7TmhWUCKIJ
— Le Col (@LeColUK) September 6, 2018
“At the time I was delighted to be on the podium in such a huge race,” he said. “I was sharing the podium with Tony Martin and Julian Alaphilippe.
“I was sitting front of the grid before we rolled out at the starts up front with Thomas and Froome having a chat with them with the TV cameras in our faces. So that was a bit surreal.
"It was great for the team as well. While I’m gutted to be out I think we proved that we should have been here from the start.
“With Gabz (Gabriel Cullaigh) 4th the first day and Mark (Downey) in the break and then me on podium; it’s what we came here to do.
“We wanted to show our worth and make an impact on the race. And we’ve definitely been doing that.”
Teggart added the breakaway had gone clear only after many of the WorldTour riders had attacked on the opening climb. So he was happy to get clear after that period of pressure.
“I personally was suffering a lot more than I should have been because of the injury I picked up during the crash at Tour de l’Avenir.
“I was trying to put on a brave face and get the job done,” he said of demolishing the three primes.
“So once I did that I sat up and tried to save my legs as much as possible. I knew I’d need them for the rest of the race.”
Topics
