Scott Lyttle still in leader’s jersey for Tour de Beauce

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PureBlack Racing’s Scott Lyttle still in leader’s jersey for Tour de Beauce

Auckland, New Zealand, 16 June 2011 – After yesterday’s big win in the Tour de Beauce opener, with Scott Lyttle and Tim Gudsell delivering PureBlack Racing a one-two finish, Lyttle is still in the yellow jersey as the tour leader. After a hard day of racing over 162km of rolling hills Lyttle also retains the King of the Mountain and Sprint jerseys and Gudsell is sitting in second overall on general classification. So for the second day running Lyttle completes the treble with all three jerseys.

Right from the start the team was at the front of the peloton with Lyttle and Gudsell tucked safely in behind their five PureBlack Racing teammates. “It was a very aggressive start today with a lot of teams trying to redeem themselves after missing yesterday’s big break away,” said Tim Gudsell, Team Captain of PureBlack Racing. “It was pretty hard to maintain control of the peloton but the boys did a great job of covering all the early breaks. It's a great feeling knowing that you have a bunch of teammates who are going to push themselves as hard as they can and then some to make your day that little bit easier.”

It wasn't until the 45km mark that a break finally got away and the team stuck to its pre-race strategy of not putting anyone in the break and keeping the team together to look after Lyttle and Gudsell. At about 80km the break split and with the Fly V rider being dropped they went to the front to pull the break back in to a two minute lead.

“With the break yesterday taking 20 or more minutes over a lot of the peloton yesterday a big part of protecting our lead was watching out for who was trying to get away,” said Gudsell. “All the guys had numbers of riders to watch written on tape on their bikes as we paid close attention to what was going on around us.”

Going into the last KOM points Realcyclist took over the front of the peloton to finally pull the break in and chase a stage win from a bunch sprint finish while PureBlack Racing was able to ride through and maintain the tour lead for Lyttle and the second place for Gudsell.

Carl Williams, Sports Director, PureBlack Racing said, “Tomorrow will be a defining stage, with a big mountain top finish at Mont Megantic, before we head into the Time Trial stage. We will continue to take it a day at a time and build on our great start.”

ENDS

About PureBlack Racing:

PureBlack Racing is New Zealand’s first international professional road cycling team, launched in 2010, with the aim becoming New Zealand’s leading international UCI ProTour road cycling team. Lead by America’s Cup yachtsman, Star Class World Champion and Olympian, Carl Williams and investor and entrepreneur Greg Cross, PureBlack Racing will compete in the UCI’s US Continental Tour in 2011 with the ultimate aim of becoming a ProTour Team with entry to the Tour de France.

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