Burley's Thwaites is earning praise (From Ilkley Gazette)

Burley's Thwaites is earning praise

8:27am Thursday 7th March 2013 in Sport

Burley-in-Wharfedale rider Scott Thwaites has been impressing with his new team.

Thwaites, who has won the Otley Town Centre Cycle race for the past two seasons, now rides on the international stage with the German outfit NetApp Endura.

And after the recent Belgian Classic race Le Samyn, he received rich praise from his team manager.

The objective for his team in the 45th running of the race was to set up their top sprinter Roger Kluge for the sprint finish of the 206 kilometre race.

But Kluge was unable to deliver and Thwaites, one of the youngest members of the team, emerged as NetApp Endura’s best finisher in seventh place.

Team director Jens Heppner said after the race.

“Today we were aiming to ride for the sprint for Roger Kluge and managed to get three riders into the finale.

“Unfortunately, Roger’s legs just gave out in the final kilometre, but Scott Thwaites, whom we had set aside as the last man for Roger, reacted immediately and still had the power to sprint.

“Scott really put in a great performance.

“Back in Argentina he got noticed with some good results, and today he has proven his strong form once again.

“This and the team’s overall performance give us reason to be optimistic,” eppner said.

NetApp Endura Endura have learned that they will be competing in the Tour of Flanders this year.

The 255-kilometre classic will be held on March 31.

News comes in the week that they were short-listed for one of the wildcard entries to the Tour de France.

The team has a very high-quality racing schedule coming up.

After the Tour of Flanders they will be competing in the Paris-Roubaix race and then a week later in the Amstel Gold Race.

In between those dates they will also be competing in traditional races like the Scheldeprijs and the Brabant Arrow.