History was made in the elite women’s race of the Tour Series in Aberdeen last night as Jess Roberts became the first woman to win three consecutive Tour Series events.
The Team Breeze rider did it in style too as she broke away from the chasing pack to secure her hat-trick of wins following earlier successes at Motherwell on Tuesday and Redditch last Thursday.
The 20-year-old, who was crowned the elite and under-23 national road race champion in 2018, finished well clear of Scotland’s Katie Archibald with Rebecca Durrell coming in third.
A thrilled Roberts struggled to come to terms with the magnitude of her historic win in the Granite City.
She said: “It is really special. I didn’t expect to win three in a row and it’s nice to get a win that way.
“I didn’t really have a tactic coming in but I saw an opportunity to go and just tried it. No one had really gotten away so I didn’t think it would stick but I did. My coach on the side said the gap was going out. He keeps me posted.
“I think my form’s the best it has been. I’ve been feeling pretty strong. The crowd was so good too and they definitely helped me get across the finish line.”
Roberts is clearly making waves following her fantastic start to the series but the ultimate goal is to see Team Breeze crowned champions by the end of the championship and the team extended its overall lead at the top of the standings
Roberts said: “It was a good night for the team and that’s what we really matters. We’ve stayed in the lead and held on to the green jersey and that was the aim.”
Roberts believes the new circuit in Aberdeen represented a more challenging route for the riders and she was pleased to come through a testing race with her landmark win.
She said: “I was here last year so the new course is a bit different. It didn’t have a dead turn before the finish which made for a technical challenge but it is a good course. It was pretty hard but I dug deep and thankfully I managed to stay away. There are quite a lot of corners and you need to kick out of them more than other races.”
There was little sign of the drama which was to come following a competitive opening and it was not until the 10th lap when Jo Tindley of VeloPerformance claimed the first sprint that the women started to really open up and push each other.
Cuminestown’s Neah Evans tried to break clear on the 11th lap while Scotland team-mate Katie Archibald made a push of her own in lap 13, a move which split the field considerably but by lap 15 Roberts was out in front and she claimed the second sprint points in lap 19.
Archibald then responded by regaining the lead.
But by the 23rd lap Roberts was back out in front and she did not let her lead slip again.
Within a lap the lead had grown to eight seconds and by lap 25 Roberts had extended it to a daunting 25 seconds.
It was a lead which proved unsurmountable for the chasing pack and her lead ensured she comfortably won the third and final sprint although Roberts was denied the fastest lap with Rebecca Durrell of Brother UK –Tifosi p/b OnForm’s final lap of 1min33.667sec pipping the winner to that accolade.
