The 2024 Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain kicked off on Tuesday with an 181km taking in much of the Scottish Borders, with the stage departing and terminating in Kelso.
After the morning rollout in glorious sunshine, Thornley attacked in the opening kilometres alongside Julius Johansen (Sabgal / Anicolor) and Callum Ormiston (Global 6 United).
The trio quickly build and advantage of around 3 minutes before the peloton led by Ineos Grenadiers and Soudal Quick-Step would start to hem any further gains.
The Scot was able to take maximum points at the first four KOM points, eventually distancing Ormiston before the Peebles native chose to ease up, knowing that he would wear the King of the Mountains as the race entered England tomorrow.
Behind, the final ascent of Dingleton would spark the match that the General Classification hopefuls were waiting for with hometown favourite Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) among the attackers with Julien Alaphillipe (Soudal Quick-Step), Connor Swift (Ineos) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal).
A number of riders would suffer and lose contact with the peloton, but no advantage would be made permanent.
A sprint finish would ensue with Soudal Quick-Step’s lead out delivering the French prodigy Paul Maglier in prime position to power to victory on the Kelso cobbles.
The Frenchman said on his victory:
“Incredible, we did an amazing team performance today. We tried Remco and Julian on the climb but it was really hard so in the end they tried for me in the bunch race.
“We tried to make the race hard by accelerating a bit on the climb. I was a bit on the limit on the climb, it was still a big group on the top, but I managed to survive. Then I rested a bit before the sprint. They give you wings when such big riders are working for you.
Callum Thornley was ecstatic with his exploits, which also saw him award the Most Combatitive Rider Award:
“It feels really good to pull on the jersey. That was the goal at the start of the day, be out at the front of the race on home roads so really happy to make it happen.
I was trying not to get carried away too early, but once we got a gap I just knew we had to get to the small roads then hopefully the teams behind would block the road.
With the moment on the podium coming on his native Border roads, with plenty of support from friends and family, the Scot was in awe:
“They were incredible, when I went through Kelso for the first time, it was the first time I’ve ever had goosebumps on the bike and then on the podium, the reception was brilliant. It’s really surreal to get that.”
Fellow Scots Sean Flynn and Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) would come home comfortably in the peloton, setting them up nicely for the rest of the race – and any potentially general classification hopes.
Tomorrow sees the race enter England, with the 152.1km route from Darlington to Redcar proving another tricky test.