Road Racing
Reading hosted a fine day's road racing on Sunday as Reading Cycling
Club and AW Cycles Race Team joined forces to hold their Spring Road
Races on a tough hilly course on roads around the Woodcote, Goring &
South Stoke.
On paper, the Elite / 1st category / 2nd Category race looked wide
open as the powerful Plowman Craven team fielded a much-reduced squad
after their recent extended racing visit to the United States. A
breakaway group of 10 riders got away on the first lap and worked to
build up a sizeable lead over the bunch, who seemed to lack the
firepower to fight back particularly into the brisk headwind through
open farmland around North & South Stoke. By mid-race
the breakaway group was fragmenting as race speed took its toll on the
riders. However, Plowman Craven had got one of their men into this
break, and at the bell it was Alex Higham (Plowman Craven) and Danny
Axford (Arctic Premier RT) crossed the line together having
established a comfortable 2-minute cushion over their fellow escapees.
Higham dropped Axford with a powerful attack on the last lap to solo
home comfortably in 2hrs 58 mins for 120km. Axford crossed the line
1min 20 secs down, with the remaining breakaways coming home in dribs
and drabs before the bunch sprinted in to contest 10th place.
In the 3rd / 4th Category race, the presence of prominent time
triallists Nick English (Reading CC), Billy Girvan (North Hants Road)
and Andrew Girling (agiskoviner.co.uk) offered the potential for
powerful attacks, and indeed each made strong efforts to get away but
did not appear to join forces. The headwinds on the open sections of
the course blunted solo efforts and allowed the bunch to combine their
resources to haul riders back in. A bunch finish looked inevitable but
a split on the final lap reduced the sprint to 15 or so riders.
Promising junior Dexter Gardias (Torq / Colnago) took the honours with
a fine dash to the line, winning by two seconds over Jamie Howard
(Exeter Wheelers). Reading's riders were well represented at the end
with Paul Elcock claiming 6th place and Rob King 10th. The race
distance of 80km was completed in a shade under two hours.
After the race, riders and British Cycling officials praised the
efficient and safe organisation of the event. Organisers, Colin Bates
& Tim Bedingfield expressed their thanks to the nearly 30 volunteers
from the two clubs turned out to marshall the event or to drive cars
in the race convoy.
Provisional Results
awcycles.co.uk RT Spring Road Race
Category E,1 & 2
1. Alex Higham - Plowman Craven RT
2. Danny Axford - Arctic - Premier RT
3. John Pain - GWR Team Giant
Reading Cycling Club Spring Road Race
Category 3 & 4 - Selected results
1. Dexter Gardias - Torq Colnago
7. Paul Elcock - Reading CC
10. Rob King - Reading CC
Regular Reading CC road racer Wayne Thomas competed in 4 events last
week. In the regular Tuesday and Wednesday meetings at Hillingdon
Wayne finished comfortably in the bunch. Saturday saw Thomas compete
in back to back events at the Milton Keynes Bowl. In the first veteran
event Wayne stayed up at the front in the sprint to finish 4th, but
the effort left him drained for the 3.4 category race that followed,
where he did well to last over an hour before retiring, happy to rest
on his laurels of the previous event.
Time Trials
Newbury RC 25. Saturday was the warmest day of the year so far and
Stephen Millward, Brian Bingham, Stephen Bale, and Lucinda Seymour
represented Reading CC at Newbury RC's open 25 on the A4. It was windy
but that appeared to help rather than hinder times with 24 of the 70
finishers completing the course in under an hour. Stephen Bale and
Lucinda Seymour both recorded personal bests for the distance with
57.10 and 1.05.41 respectively. The winner was Tony Gibb of Plowman
Craven with an impressive 50.41 just beating John Tuckett of A W
Cycles by 13 seconds.
Selected results
1. Tony Gibb 50.41
13.Stephen Bale 57.10
34. Stephen Millward 1.01.06
46. Brian Bingham 1.03.28
54. Lucinda Seymour 1.05.41
Reading CC Club event, Waltham St. Lawrence course, 10 miles
A warm, calm evening didn't deliver as fast times as one might have
expected with the exception being Billy Girvan's 22.18.
Club results:
1. Steve Bale 24-19
2. Julian Dale 24-43
3. Simon Notley 25-13
4. Greg Woodford 25-23
5. Simon Markham 25-26
6. Steven Millward 25-30
7. Steve Fleming 26-12
8. John Wann 26-19
9. Brian Bingham 26-28
10. Adrian Lawson 27-09
11. Dean Bond 27-12
12. Nick Chaplin 27-23
13. Gary Henwood 27-29
14. Gavin Spiers 28-03
15. Russell Barton 28-05
16. Ross Fitheridge 28-06
17. Nigel Charlton 28-15
18. Barry Quick 28-22
19. Colin Bates 29-13
20. Pete Stocker 29-29
21. John Thurgar 29-45
22. Paul Cooper 31-15
23. Anne Fuller 32-24
Other riders:
William Girvan North Hants RC 22-18
Tim Harris Thames Valley Tri 28-12
Rikki Pankhurst AW Cycles 28-23
Bryan Thorpe Thames Valley Tri 29-39
Jamil Gaida Palmer Park Velo 30-05
Sportive Riding
The sportive season is underway with Reading riders in action in two events.
The White Horse Challenge took place on a 150km route through
Wiltshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire that included 1400 metres of
climbing. James Pilgrim-Morris rode to a high placing, commenting: "I
was fairly pleased with my position especially as I rode a tactically
pathetic race - I did three-quarters of it on my own!". 394 riders
completed the route.
Selected results:
1. Richard Todd Tortoise Club 4:26:16
24. James Pilgrim-Morris Reading CC 4:40:14
104. Ian Lomas Reading CC 5:04:54
249. Graham Patterson Reading CC 5:52:12
The Princes Risborough Sunday Sportive covered 126km of Chiltern roads
familiar to Reading riders. Nick Crocker, Nigel Elliot, Kevin Marshall
and Paul Marshall were there for Reading CC. Crocker and Kevin
Marshall produced "gold' standard rides despite problems en route.
Marshall could not access his 'big ring' gears, and Crocker slid off
on a descent, gashing his elbow. Paul Marshall produced a respectable
ride on his first sportif while Elliott was pleased to be riding after
a poor winter for him. Crocker commented on his crash: "It was my own
silly fault. I locked the brakes while the wheels were at the limit of
adhesion on a wet surface. I rode slightly more considered after
that!" With the fastest rider completing in 4 hours 2 minutes, Crocker
was close behind in an excellent 4:11. Kevin Marshall completed in
4:31, Paul Marshall in 5:03, and Nigel Elliott in 5:05.