There has been LOT of news recently in the World of Rayner Foundation. We are up to 15 wins total now since the beginning of the season with 10 different riders.
MAX CUSHWAY was the Master of Mené as the Barber of Brittany once again won on home soil. The Morbihan Adris GOA rider won the Circuit de Mené, on Easter Monday by storming the individual time trial to a new course record. An early British TT style start at 8.17 in the morning as third rider off Max was in the hot seat and was never beaten: “I was really ready for this TT, I had been riding the TT bike for a few weeks.”
The same afternoon he then fought back from being some way behind a lead group to take third in the 136 km road race around St Jacut du Mené and win the overall GC.
He said afterwards: “it’s been a crazy 2 weeks for me. Winning my first Elite victory, winning my first TT, winning my first yellow jersey and winning the overall classification”
Subsequently Max revealed the news that he was to relinquish his British status and become a French National. Doing this means of course he cannot be considered as a Rayner Foundation rider anymore but he will be remembered as an early graduate and we will always support his career!! Bonne chance Max and don’t forget us!
ADAM MITCHELL of Vendee U Team was third on GC in the same race. Looking forward to a win from Adam soon..
BJOERN KOERDT wins again.. We wrote about Bjoerns first win in France last time, and no sooner than that he went and did it again a week later. He took the 43ème Tour du Charollais, an elite National race in the department of Saône-et-Loire.
He followed this up with a great 9th place in Liege Bastogne-Liege U23 race in the Belgian Ardennes, a race that was won by British sensation Joe Blackmore.
BEN CHILTON has had weeks long run of podiums places without reaching the top step. He finally did it last weekend. Not once but twice in the Boucles de la Haute-Vienne in the east of France near Lyon. On the Friday he won the short prologue and then won the overall classification for the race on the Sunday after coming second twice in both the other stages.
“It was a nice way to end a weekend of hard stage racing and a good start to my campaign of stage racing,” he said afterwards. “It felt good to win finally but I’m still hungry for my first road race win.”
He knew the prologue was winnable because it suited the Apogé-Charente-Maritime rider’s critical skills. He lost the overall lead after the hilly first stage, but felt there was a chance to regain it on the final stage. After lying low in the second stage, he attacked on his own with five km to go. “I was unsure if it would work but I wanted to go down trying”.
He was caught near the finish line but still managed to regain the final overall classification and finally got to stand on the top step wearing the Maillot Jaune.
