Youth Tour of Scotland
Youth riders from across the British Isles made the journey to Strathallan School in Perthshire to contest one of the most prestigious races available to them, the 2024 edition another for the history books.
Founded on a developmental opportunity both on and off the bike, the five stage race tests everything from living away from home, to teamwork and raw cycling ability. Across the various stages there were some stunning performances, which can be poured over in more detail via our daily reports below.
Ultimately there could only be one winner in each race however, with the North West’s Phoebe Taylor taking the victory in the Female event by an astonishing three tenths of a second, whilst Evander Wishart from BC Eastern took the Open crown. From a Scottish point of view, Melanie Rowe (SC North East) and Elliot Speedie (SC East & Central) were awarded the blue jerseys for best Scottish Riders.
Full results can be found here:
Female | Open
Itzulia Basque Country
Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) was in action in this challenging week long stage race, which unfortunately made headlines as a number of Tour de France favourites crashed out on stage four. Onley kept his composure though, and would go on to take a brilliant fifth place on the final stage, besting some of the best riders in the world over the mountainous parcours.
His efforts were further rewarded with a third place finish on the Young Riders Classification, as well as sixth in the King of the Mountains and 19th on General Classification.
Paris Roubaix
Whilst the eyes of the cycling world watched Mathieu Van der Poel take the Elite Men’s victory at Paris Roubaix, earlier in the day the world’s best U23 riders contested the Paris-Roubaix Espoirs, Callum Thornley (Trinity Racing) the sole Scot in action. The Borders man had a terrific race, to the fore throughout, finishing in the second group on the road, just 15 seconds down on the trio that would contest the podium spots, which contained one of his teammates. An untimely puncture in the last couple of kilometres cost him a shot at 4th place, but ultimately a top 10 finish on his debut in this classic race is something he can be proud of.
The Junior Men’s version of the race also took place on Sunday, with Elliot Rowe riding for GB and Joe Cosgrave for MIX Fensham Hows/Tofauti Everyone Active. Unfortunately both DNF’d, but gained valuable experience none-the-less.