Tyler Hannay completed his 2021 season with a terrific ride in a UCI 1.1 time trial at Les Herbiers in the Vendee region of north-west France.

Now aged 18, the rising star from Ramsey thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to finally ride in Continental Europe after being thwarted by Covid restrictions earlier in the year.

There was a good prize fund for the elite riders with the likes of Remco Evenepoel (a team-mate of Mark Cavendish at Deceuninck-QuickStep), Stefan Küng of Groupama-FDJ who is the reigning European Continental time trial champion, and Filippo Ganna who rides for INEOS Grenadiers alongside Onchan resident Ben Swift, on the start list.

Hannay rode in the Chronos Des Nations Junior event over a challenging 26 kilometre course on smooth, undulating roads with lots of road furniture (roundabouts etc) akin to a time trial in the Tour de France, and great support in the villages from the locals.

The town put on a festival for the weekend with about 5,000 spectators in attendance. It is a well-known event on the Continent for time trial specialists with a dozen World Tour teams taking part.

It is also a place for teams to spot up-and-coming riders such as the young Manxman, who rode in the colours of Team Utmost Isle of Man.

Entry was by selection/invitation with most of the national champions competing, but Hannay was the only rider from the UK and the Crown Dependencies.

The winner was European Continental Men’s Junior Individual Time Trial Champion Alec Segaert of Belgium (Gaverzicht-BE Okay U19 team) in 31min 14sec.

He was followed by Irish junior road race and time trial champion Darren Rafferty (Team 31 Jolly Cycles U19) at four seconds, with 2020 French junior TT champion Eddy Le Huitouze (Club Bretagne Juniors) at 34 seconds and Hannay at 1m 02s.

Segaert was runner-up in the UCI Men’s Junior World Time Trial Championship, Le Huitouze was fifth and Rafferty 11th, but amazingly, Tyler managed to take the scalp of UCI Men’s Junior World Time Trial Champion Gustav Wang of Denmark (Team ABC Junior team) who was 10 seconds in arrears in sixth place at Chronos .

Hannay recently agreed terms to join the CC Etupes near Montbeliard close to France’s border with the Swiss city of Basel on January 1. He is already looking forward to going to the team’s first training camp in January.