Cameron Scott might have been a late addition to the Bahrain Victorious squad for the Tour de Romandie however the Australian has already made the a lot of the alternative, placing in a scorching efficiency within the prologue to step up onto his first WorldTour podium.
The 26-year-old rider who’s often tasked with serving to his teammates was the one who received to make the mark for his crew this time, rolling out into the damp situations late within the 2.3km prologue to return inside a second of winner Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor Professional Biking). In taking second, Scott shuffled Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) into third place.
“I’m fairly comfortable about this end result,” mentioned Scott in a crew media launch. “It’s really my first WorldTour stage race in Europe, so to be on the rostrum is kind of good and satisfying. To be sincere it’s in all probability the perfect alternative for me to get a end result for myself.”
The technical course, with 12 corners within the prologue, performed to the strengths of the highly effective rider who rose to the WorldTour in 2023 after making his mark in Australia with ARA Professional Racing Sunshine Coast. He’d already given a glimmer of his potential to carry out within the stage by final 12 months taking an eleventh place on the prologue of the Deutschland Tour in 2023, additionally run over 2.3km.
“The shorter, the higher for me. I grew up in Australia doing plenty of crits and monitor racing, so this course was nearly good,” mentioned Scott.
The Australian caught the eye of Bahrain Victorious in 2022 when, on a visit to Europe with ARA Professional Racing Sunshine Coast, he simply missed victory in a good dash on the 1.2-ranked Dutch race Ronde van Overijssel after which adopted up with a win on the 1.2 ranked Memorial Philippe Van Coningsloo.
He hasn’t been on the rostrum in Europe since then, with gaining expertise and fulfilling his position as a crew helper the precedence in his first season on the WorldTour. Improvement and the crew position proceed to be the important thing in his second 12 months however on the finish of final season he had flagged the potential to open one other layer in 2024. “Hopefully I’d get a chance myself in a single race,” he instructed Cyclingnews in December on the sidelines of the Tour of Vibrant.
The crew could not have been a lot happier with the way in which he grasped that probability when it got here alongside.
“It was a superb journey by Cameron Scott, who got here in as a late reserve, and to have the ability to carry out and run second within the stage is a unbelievable effort,” mentioned Sports activities Director Neil Stephens, who was additionally happy with the general exhibiting from the crew. Nikias Arndt was eighth, Matevž Govekar got here thirteenth and Damiano Caruso was 51st, which left him well-placed amongst the GC contenders.
“Tomorrow is a difficult circuit, so it’s good to be up there with an excellent place behind the bunch,” mentioned Stephens. “Extra importantly, this can be a nice morale increase for the fellows. For the younger guys this week, we wish to give them the perfect probability, and in case you work laborious and provides it a go, you possibly can obtain nice issues.”
