TDT-Unibet’s British rider tasted the team’s first WorldTour event at the Amstel Gold Race. Adam Becket finds out how the day went
It was a British-themed day at the Amstel Gold Race a fortnight ago.
Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) might have won the day, but he was not the first Englishman to animate the Dutch Classic.
The first was Zeb Kyffin of TDT-Unibet, who spent 144km of the 253km race up the road, in not just his first WorldTour race, but his team’s. The 26-year-old, who previously rode for Ribble-Weldtite and Saint Piran, was therefore very much in the spotlight at TDT’s biggest race of the season.
“This was the first race where I almost felt a bit sick before with nerves,” he told Cycling Weekly the day after his huge day out. “It was quite a big deal – we were doing the sign-on with all the crowds who were there and there was an incredible atmosphere. I don’t think it has sunk in because I was just riding my bike, and there’s like 400 people screaming at you, and they somehow know your name.”
Being in the breakaway at a WorldTour race is never just fortune or being in the right place at the right time, it is carefully plotted, as Kyffin explained.
Mind the gap
“We had a clear cut plan, which was that four of us would try and get into the break,” he said. “There would be cutting off points where less of us would try so we’re not killing ourselves, and then with 35km gone, the right composition wasn’t being allowed to go. The whole road was completely blocked, and I just sneaked through a gap and kicked it back off again.
“They had all had enough, so I was allowed to go, which was great. Having that representation and the time on TV was amazing.”
He might not have ended the day on the top step of the podium like Pidcock, his compatriot, but he had an invaluable day of experience, and TDT-Unibet completed their goal of being at the front of the race.
“I never really thought a WorldTour race would be bigger than a .Pro,” Kyffin continued. “We did Brabantse Pijl on Wednesday, and I thought it would be the same, but it actually felt like the Tour de France at points, you couldn’t see the side of the road. It’s bigger than anything I’d ever done before.
“When I did the Tour of Britain, I thought that was as big as it was going to get. Now we’re here, it’s our first WorldTour race, and it’s real
