CEREDIGION cyclist Stephen Williams has made his mark in the professional ranks with some superb performances for the SEG Racing Academy in Europe.

The 21 year-old, from Capel Dewi, achieved a strong ninth-place finish at the prestigious Liège-Bastogne-Liège Under-23s race in Belgium, and followed that up with a strong performance at the Tour de Bretagne in France, again finishing ninth overall in the Youth Classification.

Despite having his first season with the team derailed by crashes and injury, the former JLT-Condor rider scored some big results, and he has been full of enthusiasm for this year.

Williams, who was second in last year’s Flèche Ardenaisse, had decided to pull out of the Team Wales road racing squad for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia as it overlapped with one of his biggest goals of the season, the Liège-Bastogne-Liège Under 23s race.

Last year, Williams had suffered a chest infection after the opening stage in France. However, having competed in some Dutch one-day races, and in Normandie, prospects were looking good.

With a total of 173.4 km and nine côtes awaiting the riders, the Liège-Bastogne-Liège offered some exciting racing, and with the sun shining at the start in Bastogne, it made for a hard day’s racing.

The race started at a high pace, with the bunch completing 46 km in the first hour, as many attempted to make the break.

After more than 50 km, and with the first côte behind, a group of 14 riders broke clear of the main group, and worked up a gap of close to two and a half minutes.

Once the break was gone, the calm came back to the bunch, but in the slopes of the infamous Côte de la Redoute the main group broke up into pieces, with a group of 15 riders, which included Williams.

Shortly after the steep climb, one rider of the breakaway went to the front alone, but the chasers organised themselves and kept him in close distance, before picking up the pace and getting into the last climb, with just nine riders in contention.

The slopes of Côte de la Rue Haute saw Williams attack, bringing two riders with him. Just before hitting the velodrome track, the group, driven by SEG’s Williams and Ide Schelling made contact with Thymen Arensman, and reached the final kilometre in a group of around 20.

Schelling was the fastest of the group and finished his excellent effort with fourth place overall, with his SEG teammate Williams rolling in ninth position.

SEG’s Thymen Arensman wrapped up a strong first time in La Doyenne, and got himself a top 20 finish, after spending the whole day in the front of the race.

Williams then competed with the SEG Racing team at the 2018 edition of the 2.2 Tour de Bretagne, which started in Brient.

The Welsh climber impressed with some excellent performances on the week-long event, and on the final stage it was Williams who provided the last push and set a superb pace for teammate Cees Bol.

With two laps to go, the strong Dutchman continued the rhythm of the Welshman, joined the leading group, and rolled home in seventh position, which powered him to fourth in overall classification.

It wrapped up a great week for the SEG team, racing aggressively and showing the true fighting spirit of the Academy, and all these efforts took the team to the top of the overall Team classification.

Williams was ninth in Youth classification and 27th in the Points classification.