It is eight years since a bulky, unknown youth called Ian Stannard made a vain, lengthy solo escape en route to Newbury in the Tour of Britain, where he finished third overall in Great Britain colours. Since then the broad-shouldered rider from Chelmsford has become a fixture at Team Sky, a powerhouse integral to Chris Froome’s Tour de France-winning squads and a key player in major one-day Classics such as the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, and here he rode to a popular solo victory on his adopted home roads after figuring in the lead quartet for the entire stage.
Sky have come here with stage wins on their mind rather than a full-scale challenge for the overall standings and the first two days had not gone to plan, with Elia Viviani crashing in Castle Douglas and Ben Swift unable to hold Steve Cummings en route to Kendal. It is rare to see Sir Dave Brailsford’s squad placing riders in a break, as Sky tend to prefer a more controlled style of racing, but Stannard said afterwards that such was the plan after he had lost time on Monday’s Lake District stage, meaning he was no threat in the overall standings.
“Yogi”, as Stannard is known, is not a prolific winner but he has taken two successive victories in the season-opening Het Nieuwsblad Classic, and the national road title, and he has come close in some of the sport’s greatest one-day races, Paris-Roubaix, Milan-San Remo and Gent-Wevelgem. He has also managed to slim down his large frame so that he has turned into a key assistant for Froome on all but the most mountainous roads in the Tour de France; in this year’s race he played a vital role in sheltering the Sky leader on the windswept stage to Montpellier before Froome made his move with Peter Sagan and Geraint Thomas.
This win was not quite in that bracket but it called on Stannard’s all-round strength and his tactical nous in the same way. With him in the initial move went another former national champion, Kristian House of Matt Prior’s One Pro team, Steve Cronshaw of Madison-Genesis and the diminutive Yorkshireman Graham Briggs of JLT-Condor, and by the time they hit the lengthy drag of the Cat and Fiddle with 30 miles to the finish their advantage was around six minutes, in spite of some concerted chasing from the Etixx – Quick-Step team of the race leader, Julien Vermote.
Cronshaw was unable to hold the other three and just after the top of the seven-mile climb, Stannard made his move, with Briggs initially taking up the chase but with little hope of pulling the Team Sky rider back once the gap had been opened. “I was surprised he hit it so early,” the Yorkshireman said. “Kristian was swinging a bit, I’d just done a turn and I left it a second too late to react. Once he’d gone that was that.”
Stannard has ridden these Peak District roads since he was 18 years old, riding for the Great Britain academy, and he is currently based in Wilmslow, so these are still his training hills and he timed his effort perfectly on a drag after the Cat and Fiddle summit, which was followed immediately by a steep descent. “Knowing the roads helps, you know just how fast you can take the blind corners and how to judge your effort on the climbs. I thought I’d go for it early, then I could hit them again if it didn’t work.”
By the time he reached the park here he was almost 2min clear, ample time to watch Briggs outsprint House for second.
In terms of the overall standings, there was stalemate with Vermote and Cummings marking each other and their respective teams sharing the pacemaking.
On Wednesday the action shifts west, with a stage running from north to south Wales, on roads that look similar to the ones in the Lakes where the race was ripped to shreds on Monday, before a finish on the Royal Welsh Showgrounds in Builth Wells. This is also the longest day of the race, totalling 226km, and offers a wealth of attacking opportunities to those willing to roll the dice as Stannard did here.
