After losing the overall lead at the Tour of Britain, WiVSunGod rider Rob Scott explained that the team can now race the rest of the week long race with more freedom as they look to carry on their good form.
The Hampshire-based outfit took the overall lead on stage three after an appeal lodged by team owner Tim Elverson meant that results were amended.
The change in the race result meant that Canadian rider Ben Perry became the overall race leader and the team became the first British UCI Continental team to take the overall lead at their home race.
At the Tour of Britain, the team faces competition from multiple WorldTour outfits including Ineos Grenadiers, Movistar and Bora-Hansgrohe. However Scott admitted that racing against world class riders is far from an intimidating prospect.
Scott said: “The calendar that Tim [Elverson] has put together for us this year has been so good for us. We’ve had a lot of experience against some WorldTour guys already, so racing here isn’t too much of a step up.
“We’re not scared of them, they might think we are sometimes but we’re definitely not afraid.”
With Ben Perry in the red jersey, yesterday capped a thoroughly impressive season for the UCI Continental team. WiVSunGod have racked up a series of outstanding results at a multitude of races including the overall victory at the Tour de la Mirabelle and Paris-Troyes.
Prior to hitting the road for stage four, Ben Perry reflected back on the team’s success this year and explained that he feels they are yet to receive the plaudits they deserve.
He said “We’ve got an incredibly strong team here this week. We’ve just been underrated now time and time again and overlooked for race after race. I feel like we’ve always performed all year as a group and you can see that in our results. People don’t appreciate what we’re capable of and hopefully after having the red jersey and our performances this week they will.”
After finishing second on stage four, which traversed his home roads, Tom Pidcock called for more teams to take the race on.
The Ineos Grenadiers star was visibly frustrated after his time in the breakaway didn’t turn into a stage win and explained that the rest of the teams were looking at Ineos to push the tempo.
Despite Pidcock’s comments, Scott said he feels other teams have been heavily involved in the workload in the peloton meaning that the WorldTour outfit are far from being marked out of the race.
Scott concluded: “I think it’s clear that Israel has been helping Ineos a lot. There’s some small teams at the race this year who’ve been on the front, but those two are undoubtedly the strongest so it’s inevitable that other teams might look at them a little to control things.”
