Ben Tulett’s Tour of Wales win

Young Kent rider emulates Martin, Dowsett and Pidcock in prestigious race, writes Paul Knott

Having secured the junior national road race title and junior cyclo-cross world title already this season, Ben Tulett recently added another significant victory to his young career: the Junior Tour of Wales. The four-day, five-stage event takes place over the August Bank Holiday weekend in the Brecon Beacons and is as good a guide of future potential as you’ll get.

“In 2004 we had Dan Martin first, Geraint Thomas second and Steven Kruiswjik in fourth place,” explained race organiser Richard Hopkins. “Now those three are in the top eight of the Tour de France. With Geraint winning the Tour this year all the guys in this year’s race know exactly where it leads.”

Tulett, still a first-year junior and riding for the South East Region, took the overall victory in style, riding strongly on the final stage to overturn Leo Hayter’s slim lead and win by 19 seconds.

“I went into the race wanting to win and I was really happy to get that done,” Tulett said. “It was pretty close and it was a really exciting final stage with that finish up the Tumble.”

Hayter, the younger brother of Ethan who rides on British Cycling’s Podium Programme and is a stagiaire with Team Sky this autumn, had won the opening time trial in convincing fashion. “To take 11 seconds off Tom Pidcock’s course record from last year tells you a lot,” Hopkins said. “Tulett was just behind him as well [by two seconds]. They’re both first-year juniors, which says a lot.” The 37-year-old race is based near Abergavenny in South Wales, with the climax coming on the 4.7km climb of the Tumble. As Hayter was wearing the leader’s yellow jersey Tulett was free to gamble on the final stage. “I thought if the break doesn’t come back then I’m going to lose the race, so I might as well just gamble and see what happens,” he explained. “We caught the breakaway about a kilometre up the final hill and I just started twisting the screw and noticed that the yellow jersey wasn’t there so pushed on a bit more.”

As Archie Ryan took the stage win (to finish third overall), Tulett took second, but had done enough to secure the race lead.

Whether 17-year-old Tulett can follow in the footsteps of previous winners is far from certain, but the most logical next step for him would be to follow his older brother Dan on to the newly formed TP Racing squad for the cyclo-cross season before a move to Team Wiggins when he turns senior in 2020.

“All the guys in this race know where it can lead”