Archive for April, 2011

The Dernies were out for the first time this season at Palmer Park. The A and B Derny Paced championships are run on different nights throughout the season the Senior As had the honour of kicking things off – and the packed programme meant that the Bs had a relatively quiet night.

With the Dernies really filling out the programme, the VIA International 10 Lap Scratch races make way for an A and B Hare & Hounds and, this week, the As were really up for the chase – reeling in the Bs’ half lap advantage just after half distance and settling in for the sprint finish.

It was Matt Gittings of AW Cycles who led out the Sprint, with Ian Greenstreet of Newbury RC on his wheel, followed by Gittings’ team mate Cam Swarbrick and Martyn Harris of Banjo Cycles. Gittings missed the opening round of the season following his ride in the Tour of Malta but had warmed up his track legs the day before at Herne Hill, taking the second round of the Sprint Omnium Series.

Gittings polished off the Sprint, with Swarbrick coming round Greenstreet in the closing stages to snatch second. It was Jason Pitt of Palmer Park Velo who took the B honours  ahead of Rikki Pankhurst of AW Cycles and John Glaysher of a3 crg. Jayne Paine of Willesden CC was the only rider in the Ladies category this evening and scooped up the points in the Hare & Hounds, Unknown Distance and the AW Cycles 20k Endurance events.

The Dernies were out next and the opening heat saw Gittings cruise through to the Finals, along with Harris. English led Heat Two for most of the race with Sam Sturgeon of Team Terminator and Swarbrick 20 metres behind. Sturgeon surged ahead in the closing stages and passed English as Swarbrick’s challenge succumbed to a stuttering motor. Will Macke of AW Cycles took the third heat, passing Greenstreet  just past half distance and easing away to take a comfortable win.

Another short but sweet Unknown Distance race saw Swarbrick and Pilgrim Morris off the front of the race at the bell. Swarbrick picked up the pace and distanced his fellow escapee but only just held off a hard charging Harris to seal the A win with Frazier Carr of AW Cycles picking up third place. Pankhurst again led the B riders’ charge for the line, with Glaysher second and pacemaker Pilgrim Morris earning a point for his efforts in third place.

After a weekend of road racing in the sun in Bristol, it was time for the first Reading Track League of 2011. The weather looked like it was going to take a turn for the worse only a few hours before the first race was due to start – large black clouds rolled in over Wokingham and Reading, and the threat of a cancelled season premier was a distinct one.

Fortunately the clouds rolled away again, and the weather held off nicely for the racing to commence. After the opening youth race it was time for the big boys in the A league 10 lap scratch. A strong headwind down the back straight made it hard for anyone to break away on their own, so the race came down to a bunch sprint. I had positioned myself in the top 3 of the bunch with just over 200 metres to go and, as the sprint started, I found a gap and managed to ride through it, clinching 3rd place behind Sam Sturgeon and John Coolahan.

The next event was the Sprint, with heat 2 containing 4 riders, 3 in AW Cycles kit – Frazier Carr, Nick English and I. Sam Sturgeon of Team Terminator positioned himself behind Nick and made his move at the 200 metre mark. With no one able to match his pace, Sam cruised through to the sprint final later on in the evening.

The third race of the evening was the Devil Take the Hindmost. There was a good AW Cycles representation in this race with 3 Junior riders and Nick English from the Senior squad. The pace didn’t seem that fast, and the group stayed neatly together, with the Devil eliminating the last rider every lap. With only 15 A league riders, this was a short race. When it was down to the last 4 riders the bell was given. At this point Nick was on the front with me closely tucked onto his wheel. Just before the 200 metre line I started to put the pressure on to get past Nick and to make sure I didn’t get boxed in by the other two riders who were trying to come round. I got to the front and put my head down and sprinted to the finish line. I managed to hold off the chase to take my first with of the season and only my second ever A league win.

With a 3rd and a 1st, I had already achieved more points than I did in the whole of last year, which isn’t a bad start to the season. The penultimate event of the night was the Unknown Distance race. With an attack from the gun from Nick English and Donal Linehan, the pace was pretty high. Realising this was a strong breakaway in an unpredictable race I set after the break with Ian Greenstreet. When I realised that Ian was playing it tactically trying to slow me down to let his team mate get away, I overtook him and quickly bridged the gap to Nick and Donal and as I caught them we were given the bell. Going down the back straight I was third in the line, and saw a gap open up on the inside of Donal, and I tried to force my way through, but ended up getting 3rd place.

The last event as always was the AW Cycles 20km Scratch race. Again an early move by Nick English was closed down, and within a few laps I found myself in a group of 4 riders off the front of the bunch, and before we knew it we had half a lap on the bunch. The group consisted of myself, Martyn Harris, Donal Linehan and Josh Ansell. After a couple of big efforts Josh pulled out of the group leaving the three of us to work together to gain that all important lap on the field, but as the race wore on and the laps wound down, the relative “freshness” of our legs also subsided. Martin went off on his own to lap the field, and then almost immediately make another impressive move off the front.

A two man chase group lead by Nick English caught Donal and I with about 15 laps left to go, but my legs were too far gone to keep up with them, so I pulled up to wait for the bunch and with 11 to go I was back in the bunch, staying near the front, trying to recover my legs for the sprint at the end. With 2 to go Harry Strudley came over the top of the group to give me an impressive and gutsy lead out. But on the last lap with no more than 300 metres to go the past two days of road racing and the rest of the evening’s racing caught up with me and I developed cramp in my inner calf. I tried to ride through it and fight for the sprint, but it was too painful, I think I still finished in the top 10, so this was my most successful 20km ever, and by far my most successful A league evening.

An all round good start to the racing season, with an AW Cycles rider finishing top 3 in every event but the sprint final. Hopefully this continues on the rest of the season.