Welsh Cycling Duo Heading Off On A Grand Tour Together

Scott Davies and Stevie Williams will ride the Vuelta a Espana which starts on Tuesday.

The duo will be part of the Team Bahrain McLaren line-up for the final Grand Tour of the season.

Carmarthen-born Davies, 25, will be making his second appearance in a Grand Tour having ridden last year’s Giro d’Italia.

But for Aberystwyth’s Williams, 25, it will be his debut in one of cycling’s three great stage races.

https://twitter.com/BahrainMcLaren/status/1317367675413270530

The 75th edition of the race starts in Irun on Tuesday and finishes in Madrid on 8 November but due to the impact of COVID-19 has been reduced from 21 to 18 stages.

Scott Davies joined Bahrain-Merida from Dimension Data

Davies and Williams will be support riders for Wout Poels who will be aiming for the General Classification and Matej Mohoric who is looking for stage wins.

“For Davies and Williams this will be the first race after a long time, so we’ll see what they will show,” said Gorazd Štangelj, one of the team Sports Director at Vuelta.

“This year’s Vuelta will be a tough challenge, because of the general Covid-19 situation. Our primary objective in this view will be to keep all of the riders and staff safe and healthy.

Stevie Williams in action last year

“Another factor that will have a tremendous effect on the race, will be the expected cold, wet, and rainy weather, which is traditional for this part of Spain during this time.

But despite all these challenges, we will make the best out of it. In the race, our key objective will be to give enough support to Wout.

“I think that despite all the restrictions and the busy calendar we were able to bring together a strong team to do that.”

Davies, who was 118th at the Giro last year, has not raced since a four-stage race in Italy in September.

Team-mate Williams spent much of the lockdown recuperating for an operation last year on his left knee but competed in a couple of major one-day races in Belgium recently.