When Cornwall's Saint Piran cycling team embarked upon the Tour of Britain, they did so as one of a minority of Continental outfits, amid a peloton of UCI WorldTour and UCI Pro teams. Yet, after eight days of racing, the team came away with sixth place in the general classification, via Zeb Kyffin, who finished just 23 seconds shy of the winner.
"If you look around and just see 20 guys, who all have WorldTour jerseys on, and you're effectively scared of, it's very easy just to give up," 25-year-old Kyffin told Cycling Weekly. "I've done well enough to get here, everyone that knows me is really proud I can stop racing now with 50 kilometres to go."
"Confidence, I think, is a massive key in those situations," Kyffin said when asked what it’s like to face Van Aert in a race situation. "I think if there's a message we sent out with our performance, it would be not to worry about someone else's journey, not to look at all the WorldTour teams and all the reasons as to why you can't do it. Just focus on what you're doing."
Discussing the final gruelling stage in Wales, Kyffin explained: "I just mentally went to such a deep and dark place to not get dropped on Sunday. We really took it to them and just kind of got our name out there."