Chris Opie sprinted to a brilliant individual triumph as his BIKE Channel Canyon team bagged second in the opening crit of the Tour Series campaign.
The Cornishman, who also notched the Brother fastest lap with a 1min 51.699sec effort, punched the air in delight as he crossed the line in Redditch in front of JLT Condor’s Brenton Jones, with Enrique Sanz third.
Rory Townsend was eighth, James Lowsley-Williams 13th and Jack Pullar 16th as sports director Tim Elverson awaited the team standings.
And it was soon confirmed, with JLT Condor adding a second success to their team time trial victory earlier in the day. Opie & Co were second, as they had been in the two-lap test which got the 2017 Tour Series under way.
When the race began, an early attack from Sebastian Mora, of Team Raleigh, came to nothing before Metaltek Kuota’s Zach May burst clear to take the first Wiggle Sprint. Mora was second across the line, with Great Britain’s Jacob Hennessy third.
May was reeled in with about 30 minutes on the clock as Pullar and ONE Pro Cycling’s Steele von Hoff picked their moment to chip off the front.
They were quickly brought back with a six-man break, including Lowsley-Williams, next to try their luck. And they made it to the sprint lap, with Hennessy taking the points from Mora and Tom Stewart, of ONE Pro.
It was proving an aggressive start to the Tour Series campaign, with those six riders soon reeled in and another five-man group attempting to distance the peloton only to fail.
The bunch were all together for the third sprint lap and once again it was Hennessy and More scrapping for the win. They crossed the line in that order with Harry Tanfield in third spot.
Great Britain rider Adam Hartley made a huge effort to get away but his push was quickly snuffed out as the peloton roared into the final three laps of the battle.
Matt Holmes, of Madison Genesis, attempted a late charge of his own as the searing pace began to force gaps in the bunch but it was the five men of JLT Condor who led the group into the final lap.
But despite their presence at the front, Opie powered past to lead the race through the final bend and there was no passing him as he took a brilliant individual win.
The team standings after the Redditch double-header see JLT Condor top the table on 20 points, with BIKE Channel Canyon second with 18, Madison Genesis third on 16, with ONE Pr
