Junior Tour of Wales 2000

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It was a Celtic one-two in this years Tour with Wales finishing second to Scotland. The race was won by Scotlands Alex Coutts closely followed by Lewis Hobbs of Wales. Coutts showed his class in the tough Prologue time trial on Saturday morning winning in a near record time of 12 minutes 27 seconds.

After the Saturday morning prologue win Coutts had to ride hard in the afternoon road race to chase down a breakaway group and keep alive his chances in the general classification. He paid for all his hard work finishing 23 seconds down on the climb up the Heads of the Valley to finish in Brynmawr. Andrew Allen from Merseyside was first over the line followed by James Bell of Lancashire.

Sunday saw a road race taking in a tour of the valleys, finishing at the top of the steep climb to Llanelly Hill. Hobbs was first to the top and then went on to win the afternoons circuit race at Bryn Bach Parc.

Wales looked favourites to take the team prize but their hopes were dashed when David Heaven crashed at 40mph on the final stage over the Brecon Beacons.

The final climb of the final stage was this year unique because at the foot of the leg busting Tumble Mountain climb the top ten placed riders were all neck and neck. Coutts did just enough to take the overall and Hobbs confirmed his climbing ability by taking the King of the Mountains competition.

Scotland took the team prize by just 11 seconds from a disappointed Welsh team. Ian Redpath from Scotland won the Hotspots Sprint prize completing a superb tour for the visitors.

The Steve Jones and Eddy Smart memorial shield was awarded to the best Welsh rider overall in memory of two stalwarts of past tours. It was presented to Lewis Hobbs by Steve's widow Carol.