Corbin Strong outmuscles Omar Fraile to win first stage of Tour of Britain

Under dire threat of relegation from the World Tour, the Israel-Premier Tech team received a useful fillip at the opening stage of the Tour of Britain, won by their New Zealand first-year professional Corbin Strong. The 22-year-old outshone more illustrious teammates such as their new signing Dylan Teuns, who has been hired specifically to garner ranking points that may preserve the team’s top-level status.

Summit finishes are a rarity at the Tour of Britain, and Sunday’s opener to the top of the bleak 9km ascent up the Old Military Road to the Glenshee ski station was the first time the British race has had such a long uphill run to the chequered flag on its opening day. There were few fireworks, however, as a stiff headwind on the exposed, draggy road discouraged initiative until the very last moment.

Conventionally, an uphill finish is won by the rider who keeps patient, saving his surge until the very last moment, and the New Zealander timed his effort just right to sprint off the wheel of Ineos’s Spaniard Omar Fraile. If their respective names were any guide, Strong versus Fraile was only going to have one winner.

“It’s a big result for me,” said Strong, “in my first year with Israel-Premier Tech there have been lots of ups and downs. I’m happy to show I can win at this level. I was out of position at 300m to go, but a gap opened, I got on the Ineos train and the adrenaline kicked in.”

Ineos, meanwhile, might have been left wondering if they had backed the wrong rider. Their most likely leader, Tom Pidcock, looked out of sorts early on the climb, sitting last wheel in the group and at one stage dropping off the back to answer a call of nature in the final kilometres. He staged an improbable comeback, however,