Ben Brooks of the Linda McCartney Pro Cycling Team was beaten in a sprint finish at the Starlight Grand Prix at Goodwood yesterday. The Australian was pipped by his former team-mate, national time-trial champion Chris Newton.

Ben was third after he was unable to dislodge Newton and British road race champion John Tanner in the last few miles. The tough circuit took in the hilly country lanes around the famous racecourse that Beppe Saronni used to seal his 1982 World Championship. That day, the line was at the top of the climb by the grandstand, enabling Saronni to shoot away from Sean Kelly and Greg Lemond, but the Starlight GP finished on the flat roads near the motor racing circuit.

Ben did everything he could to shake off his breakaway companions, and his attacking style whittled the group down to a select handful. But Newton and Tanner clung to him as he raced up the climbs, and were able to come round him in the final dash for the line.

“I thought Ben was the strongest rider today, and with another ten miles at the end he would have beaten them,” said assistant manager Chris Lillywhite. “But if anybody else was going to win, I was pleased it was Junior (Newton), because he’s a good guy, and he did a lot of good things for Linda McCartney last year.”

Ben received great support from the Linda McCartney-WCU development squad, Welsh champion Huw Pritchard and James Griffiths in particular showing that they have plenty to offer this season.

Co-incidentally, Goodwood’s World Champion Saronni is also a double winner of the race that Ben’s team-mates are tackling in Italy. Yesterday’s Tirreno-Adriatico time-trial stage saw former world time-trial champion Abraham Olano of Spain took the leader’s jersey off the back of his Once team-mate Laurent Jalabert, also a previous holder of that title. Olano stormed around the 26km course to record the day’s best time, putting around three minutes into the majority of the field.

Linda McCartney’s best finisher was Britain’s Max Sciandri. Despite claiming that he would be “taking it easy”, the Olympic bronze medallist quickly settled into his rhythm and was pleased to catch the man in front of him, 1997 Tirreno-Adriatico winner Roberto Petito in the last few kilometres. The Italian is the new leader of Fasso Bartolo, having arrived from Mario Cipollini’s Saeco outfit in the winter. Nevertheless, all the McCartney team were still well beaten by specialist Olano, with only Max making the top 50.

Olano will have to work desperately hard to cling on to that red and yellow jersey, but with his co-team leader Jalabert waiting in the wings, Once look to be in a powerful position. It may well play into the hands of teams like Linda McCartney, as the more defined time gaps in the general classification mean that there will be less urgency for the leaders to keep the race together. This could mean more opportunities for stage wins through the attacking riding that the team are becoming known for.

“The team have acquitted themselves very well in terms of media coverage,” reported general manager Julian Clark. “The aggressive riding means the jersey is often on the screen, and the many lone attacks we’ve launched gives the TV people plenty to talk about.”

There has also been much speculation in the Italian press about the likelihood of seeing the Linda McCartney team on the start line of this May’ s Giro d’Italia.

“Journalists ask me all the time if we will be there, and I say ‘wait and see’, but we are certainly trying to make it easy for the organisers to select us based on our performances,” said Max Sciandri. “All the articles that have been appearing in the papers this week make me think that maybe we have got a snowball gathering momentum.”

David Cassani, the former team-mate of both Max and Pascal Richard in the 1990s is now the mainstay of Italian TV’s blanket cycling coverage. He visited the team at their hotel in Isernia to wish them all the best, and congratulated all the riders for their persistence and aggression.

“It is good for TV to have a team that give you many things to speak about,” he explained. “I hope the McCartney team will come to the Giro. The field at Tirreno-Adriatico is virtually as strong as a Giro, so I don’t see why they cannot make it. This is an excellent test for them.”