Ross Blaney NDCC, competitor and co-founder of the Ulsters Zwifters told us yesterday >> “Huge thank you to all our sponsors for putting up the awesome prize list. All the riders for taking part over the last 3 days and turning our first virtual stage race into a huge success and maximum kudos to anyone that completed the full 4 stages. Not an easy weekend at all. Huge thank you to our TUZ YouTube commentating team Mark Johnston, Fiona Kelly & Thomas Evans for giving up their whole weekend to cover the full race. The banter was amazing and I know it helped the riders immensely especially today get through the stages Lastly a big thank you to all the TUZ Crew behind the senses that helped to put the whole race together especially Rick Hanna ZP Mastermind. This man has spent many hours work including in his official work, putting all the race pack and results together with many a sleepless night”
Results have been finalized and we can now congratulate Christopher McGlinchey as the inaugural winner of the Virtual TUZ Galibier Tour of the North. What a treat we had to witness the fight for the overall GC on the mighty Alp du Zwift.Overall leader at the start of the stage Andy Nichols put up a tremendous fight to hold onto his overall lead but faded with a number of KM left on the Alp. French man Thomas Lemaitre lying in 3rd place at the start of the day turned out to be a real contender for the overall title. He and Chris were able to push on in the closing KM’s and open up a commanding gap to the chasing group of Nichols, Richard Barry & Stuart Millar. Within the last KM, it turned into a game of cat & mouse between Lemaitre & McGlinchey trying to put distance between each other. But in the final meters to the top of the Alp Lemaitre was strong enough to put in one extra kick and open up a 3 second lead over McGlinchey.This was enough to win the final Queen stage but just not enough to secure the overall GC win. At the end after 3 days and 4 stages, only 2 seconds separated McGlinchey & Lemaitre overall with Nichols holding onto 3rd place 44 seconds back.
The girl’s race for overall honors was won in a very commanding style by Megan Armitage. She was almost 14 minutes ahead of 2nd place lady Meta Johnston who was able to leapfrog Claire Richardson in the GC battle for 2nd place with Claire fading but holding onto 3rd overall. Chris & Megan both won the KOM competitions outright by taking maximum points on the majority of climbs yesterday and today. They also won the Ulster Aerials Epic KOM smart scales for the first male & female over that KOM. So a productive weekend for them
Prize winners listed below, congrats to you all >>>> Galibier jerseys and sport clothing to the first 3 in the GC, KOM, and Points classifications- seesense.cc Bundle – Stuart Millar after an outstanding performance over the 4 stages placing 5th overall and 1st local TUZ member.- Dave Kane Cycles £50 Voucher – Glenn Liggett- GT Plates (Custom Number Plates) – Nathan Mullan & Alan Patterson-Kinning Cycles Vouchers – £30 John Garrett & Jonathan Lynn£20 – Brian Haughey & Marcus Cromie
£10 – Michelle McKinney & Gary Mckeegan – Supporting Sports Services (INSCYD power performance decoder tests) First U23 rider overall – Sam Coleman, an outstanding performance placing 13th overall seeing he’s still riding in the underage category on the road.Our Lanterne Rouge TUZ rider – Stephen Cardy
