Incredible Grand Tour achievement for Torbay rider

More than six-and-a-half hours of pain hardly sounds like something you’d wanted to do for much of your life, but that’s how Harrison Wood felt about his heroic ride in the ‘Queen’ 15th stage of the Giro d’Italia.

Wood, the 23-year-old pro from Torquay, had already performed beyond expectations in his first ‘Grand Tour’ for his French team Cofidis.

But he bravely attacked at the start of the brutal 222K stage from Lake Garda to the Alpine ski station of Livigno, over 18,000 feet of climbing.

The Mid-Devon CC star was still in the day’s breakaway beyond the halfway point, on the Passo di Mortirolo, one of the most feared climbs in the sport.

He crucially helped his team-mate Simon Geschke to earn vital points, which kept him in second place in the King of the Mountains competition.

As stars like dominant race leader Tadej Pogacar (Team UAE) took over, Wood eventually finished 59th on the stage, moving up to 82nd overall in a field of 150 survivors.

“That was the hardest day I’ve spent on the bike – ever,” said Wood ahead of a well-deserved rest day.

“But as a kid, I always dreamed of being at the front of a Grand Tour bike race, and today it became a reality.

“But a note to the organisers - 220K with 5,600 metres of climbing is quite a lot!” he quipped.

The Giro is now in the Dolomite mountains for the rest of this week before it finishes, hopefully with Wood still going strong, in Rome on Sunday.

That’s the day when the MDCC’s biggest promotion, the Totnes-Vire Two-Day race, arrives in Torbay.

It starts with two stages based at Hatherleigh on Saturday before what should be two spectacular tests in Torquay and Paignton on Sunday.

Oddicombe Hill will be closed to traffic all morning for a Stage Three Hill Climb Time Trial (9.30am), followed by a programme of supporting events and an invitation to the public to test themselves on the twisting half-mile ascent from the beach to Babbacombe Downs.

Then the action switches to the Paignton Velopark for the final stage (1pm), an hour and a half (42m) circuit race, again supported by a busy programme of age-group competitions.