As Dave Brailsford, Chris Froome and the rest of Team Ineos announced themselves in God’s own country, the heavens opened: a biblical deluge hammered down on the start in Doncaster, where Froome rolled on to the presentation stage, decked out in his new Ineos garb, to some boos and a pocket of protestors chanting “Shame on you!”. As the giant banner over the start line read: Welcome to Yorkshire.
Admittedly, those protesting against the controversial petrochemical giant Ineos – the new sponsor of what was Team Sky – were a minority of around 80 among thousands of fans who braved the weather to see the Tour de Yorkshire begin, but a noisy minority nonetheless who made their presence heard. They jeered and whistled, while one member of Frack Free United photobombed Brailsford wearing a mask of Ineos’s billionaire owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, contorted to look like the devil.
“You can’t even blame Dave Brailsford,” the photobomber, Steve Mason, later told The Independent. “But money talks. They are using cycling to repair their image. It’s greenwashing.” Local councillor Dave Shaw was also among the protestors and was unimpressed with Ratcliffe’s decision to launch Team Ineos in Yorkshire, a region which has been fighting Ineos’s fracking agenda. “It’s arrogant,” Shaw said. “He’s a real-life Mr Burns.”
Froome and co soon escaped the boos but they could not escape the rain, which bucketed down in bursts, causing flash flooding in places and vast puddles which the peloton was forced to spray through. The rain did little to dampen spirits on the roadside, the legacy of the 2014 Grand Depart still going strong with yellow bikes nailed to shop walls and bunting lining country roads. One sign just outside Selby read: “T’ Tour O’ Yorkshire – official translation.”
The race itself was slowed by the weather but not derailed. A breakaway group of six darted clear on what was a relatively flat profile, but they began to be reeled back in the final 30km as they whittled down to four. Team Ineos hit the front with the giant Ian Stannard pulling the main pack through the monsoon, while Mark Cavendish positioned himself on the shoulder of his Dimension Data team-mates hoping for a sprint finish.
But the peloton fell agonisingly short – only a few metres – of closing down the front four, leaving Dutch rider Jesper Asselman to clinch the opening stage. Teenage Kevin Vermaerke was one of those breakawayers who couldn't quite keep pace with Asselman, along with Dan Bigham and Sean Flynn.
“I think it is always advantage to ride out in front in these type of conditions,” said Asselman. “I’m still shivering like crazy! They were tough conditions so I’m just glad I got the win. This is definitely the biggest victory of my career.”
For Cavendish, who finished eighth, it was a good day of racing under the belt as he continues his return after two years battling epstein-barr virus, but he must have been frustrated after coming so close in the final moments to setting up the kind of bunch sprint finish on which he has built a career.
Likewise Froome would have been happy to get to the finish intact, but will know it is unlikely to be the last of the boos ringing in his ears this week.
