DANIEL Shand’s Rochdale-based supporters were dealt another blow this week when he was dropped from his team’s selection for this week's prestigious Tour of Belgium.

The Profel-Prorace rider has not been firing on all cylinders since his dogged performance in the Italian Giro del Friuli stage race.

A persistent cold has left Shand well below par, and his team management had no option but to replace him a couple of days before Wednesday’s start.

The de-selection will come as a mighty blow to the Rochdale rider, but he will be the first to understand that his team, being one of the lesser outfits, would have to be in 100 per cent top nick to confront the giants of the road.

Given that a break should soon see him back on top form, Shand’s next important outing is slated for 3 June in a one-day race at Gullengem, 3 km west of Kortrijk in southern Flanders.

A dodgy knee, exacerbated by a fall at work, might add to the opinion that the Shand family is currently up against the hand of fate.

Kev might have had that thought in mind when he attempted to plough through Saturday’s gale-force wind in the Holme Valley 25 at Boroughbridge in West Yorkshire.

The return leg, with his biggest gear whirling, gave some relief to his lop-sided effort, and he came in to post a time of 1-00.24.

A not uncharacteristic late start gave Mark Hulme a disadvantage from the word go as the West Pennine man attempted to claw back time.

He finished with 1-00.18, a time that will go down as the official result and not the 58.20 shown by his on-board watch.

The winner, Yorkshire evergreen Kevin Dawson, seemed not to notice the wind as he powered to a time of 52.28.