Bertie Newey is piling up the minutes on the bike in preparation for his return to Aberdeen tomorrow for the 2018 edition of the Tour Series.
The Englishman returns to the Granite City with a new team and in the shape of Vitus Pro Cycling.
The 23-year-old com- peted for Metalek Kuota in the debut edition in Aberdeen in 2017 but a late call to join Vitus for this season’s event has left Newey with a lot of catching up to do.
Newey, who competed in the second stage in Mother-well last night, said: “I’m dead chuffed. I didn’t have a proper plan for this year up until now so it’s good to get back in the Tour Series. I had a tough debut at Redditch on Thursday as I haven’t done much winter training. I wasn’t expecting to be racing until later in the year so it’s good to get the legs going.
“I also raced in the Lincoln Grand Prix on Sunday which I used as a day’s training for the next two weeks in the Tour Series.”
Newey is excited to be returning to Aberdeen tomorrow and believes knowledge of the challenging course will be key.
He said: “I came up here last year and I’m looking forward to it. Aberdeen is hectic with the bottom corner and you have to be really technical in how you approach it. It will catch a few new riders out.”
One of the new riders, who no doubt will be well prepared for what awaits in Aberdeen tomorrow is Newey’s team-mate Andy Shackel who faces arguably the greatest challenge of any of his team-mates. Not only must he train to compete in the biggest races of the domestic calendar, he must also maintain a full-time job with Wiggle, his employer and the parent company of Vitus Pro Cyc-ling Team’s title sponsor. He made his first appearance for the team in Motherwell last night and will be going from one end of the country to the other by the time he reaches Aberdeen.
He said: “I’m based in Portsmouth so I’ve gone from the bottom of the sea to the top. It’s been the goal for me to race in this event and I’ve been training hard. I’ve had a few setbacks with some big crashes but hopefully I can get going.
“I’ve seen a lot of the Tour Series and been told a lot about it. We have a lot of town races in Guildford but this is a great opportunity to race at the top level with a big atmosphere. It doesn’t get any better.”
