Jo Tindley (Pro-Noctis-200° Coffee-Hargreaves Contracting) and Maddie Leech (Lifeplus-Wahoo) became the protagonists of stage 3 of the Tour of Britain Women. Attacking after only a few kilometres, they made their way through Cheshire as the break of the day. Halfway through the stage, 21-year-old Leech had to let Tindley go on alone because of mechanical problems, and Tindley spent 90km ahead of the peloton before being caught.
“We found out this might have been our last opportunity to try to get up the road. I wasn’t expecting it to be so early, but I saw an opportunity and just went, and luckily, Maddie came with me. And then you just commit and see what happens. Unfortunately, Maddie had a mechanical, I was absolutely gutted because you rely on that rest as she came through,” Tindley said in the post-stage TV interview.
As all her team’s race bikes had been stolen in the night between stages 1 and 2, Leech was racing on her training bike. Halfway through the stage, the front derailleur started rubbing on the chain, and Leech was stuck in the big chainring for a while. She managed to change to the small chainring and lead Tindley over the Shrigley Road climb, but the problems persisted, and Tindley went on solo.
“I heard something had gone wrong, and she was looking down, trying to find out what it was. I spotted what it was, and the only option she had was to call the car forward. She managed to keep riding, but she just said to me ‘keep going’, and when you have to commit on your own, you have to pace yourself a bit better, you can’t be pushing the big watts, so I just sort of had to focus and settle into what I was riding at,” Tindley explained.
The two escapees had held a four-minute advantage on the way out from Warrington, but now that they had turned back towards the start and finish town, that gap had shrunk to half.
“I think we had two minutes or so at that point. I knew I would be slower up the climbs, I knew there was a headwind on the way back, so it was a case of, you got to go, you can’t hesitate,” said Tindley.
Nonetheless, the 37-year-old soldiered on alone, keeping a steady pace all the way while SD Worx-Protime were chasing behind. With the gap down to 40 seconds at the intermediate sprint in Mere, it was a forlorn hope, and Tindley was caught 12km from the finish. But she was rewarded for her effort, winning the combativity prize and earning a trip to the podium in Warrington.
“I got the information through on the radio before the bunch caught me. For me, that’s really emotional, and I think for the team as well. It was really nice, and when Lucy [Harris] won it on the first stage, we all cheered, so I know that they would have heard that back in the peloton as well. That was a really nice moment,” Tindley finished.
