Results and Reports for May 27-28Great BritainNote : these pages are often updated, please hit "refresh" or "reload" on your browser for the latest version Tour of the Kingdom Tour of the KingdomDunfermline, Scotland, May 27-28 Rod Ellingworth is king in Dunfermline Team McELL's Rod Ellingworth, leaving for the Tour of Serbia shortly, showed he has fine form by winning a tough 3 stage event in Scotland ahead of the race revelation, Antony Malarczyk (www.Real Cost Imports) with Premier Calendar leader, Jon Clay in 3rd place. ResultsStage 1 1. Rod Ellingworth (GBr) Team McELL 2. Chris Walker (GBr) On the Edge 3. Antony Malarczyk (GBr) www.Real Cost Imports 4. Kevin Dawson (GBr) Pete Reade Racing 5. Peter Murdoch (GBr) Scotland 0.17 6. Jon Clay (GBr) SLBM 0.18 7. Will Wright (GBr) Prickett/Atom Elite 8. Andy Lyons (GBr) BCF Private Member 0.21 9. Julian Grommett (GBr) Terry Wright Cycles 10. Martin Ford (GBr) Arctic 2000 King of the Sprints: Andy Lyons (GBr) BCF Private MemberStage 2 1. Antony Malarczyk (GBr) www.Real Cost Imports 2. Martin Ford (GBr) Arctic 2000 3. Jon Clay (GBr) SLBM 4. Rod Ellingworth (GBr) Team McELL 5. Chris Aneley (GBr) Prickett/Atom Elite 6. Kevin Dawson (GBr) Peter Read Racing 7. Matthew Larner (GBr) Litchefield City CC 8. Steve Ramsey (GBr) Travelwise 9. Peter Murdoch (GBr) Scotland 10. Ian Hellawell (GBr) Middridge RT Stage 3 A break went after about 12km that included Andy Lyons and Chris Walker, but was caught on the final climb with 20km to go. After a number of late attacks, Gary Adamson broke clear and was only just caught on the line by Jon Clay who led the bunch home. 1. Gary Adamason 2. Jon Clay (GBr) SLBM 3. Will Wright (Prickett/Atom Elite) @st 4. Rod Ellingworth (Team McELL) 5. Steve Russell (Active Office) 6. Antony Malarczyk (GBr) www.Real Cost Imports 7. Dave Coulson 8. Kevin Dawson (Peter Read Racing) 9. Chris Aneley (Prickett/Atom Elite) 10. Dave Keener (Cottingham Couriers) Final overall classification: 1. Rod Ellingworth (GBr) Team McELL 2. Antony Malarczyk (GBr) www.Real Cost Imports 0.07 3. Jon Clay (GBr) SLBM 0.23 4. Kevin Dawson (GBr) Pete Reade Racing 5. Martin Ford (GBr) Arctic 2000 6. Peter Murdoch (GBr) Scotland 7. Steve Ramsey (GBr) Travelwise 8. Chris Walker (GBr) On the Edge 9. Julian Grommett (GBr) Terry Wright Cycles 10. Will Wright (GBr) Prickett/Atom Elite 11. Andy Lyons (GBr) BCF Private Member King of the Sprints: Andy Lyons (GBr) BCF Private Member Team: Terry Wright Cycles Peter Fryer Trophy: Peter Murdoch (GBr) Scotland Premier Calendar (Provisional): 1 Jon Clay (GBr) SLBM 242 2 Chris Newton (GBr) Middridge CRT 204 3 Rod Ellingworth (GBr) Team McELL 159 4 John Tanner (GBr) Provision Powerbar 148 5 Julian Winn (GBr) WCU-Private Member 129 6 Mark Lovatt (GBr) Provision Powerbar 124 7 Huw Pritchard (GBr) Linda McCartney-WCU 123 8 Kevin Dawson (GBr) Pete Reade Racing 111 9 Andy Lyons (GBr) BCF Private Member 104 10 Antony Malarczyk (GBr) www.Real Cost Imports 97 Premier Calendar Races in Series: * 1. 12th March Oleum-Starlight Grand Prix * 2. 19th March Grand Prix of Essex Road Race * 3. 26th March Romford-Harlow Road Race * 4. 1st - 2nd April Europa 2 Day Stage Race * 5. 9th April Archer International Grand Prix RR * 6. 16th April Lancaster Mercedes Grand Prix RR * 7. 22nd - 24th April Girvan Stage Race * 8. 7th May Lincoln International Grand Prix RR * 9. 14th May Chairman's Silver Spoon Road Race * 10. 20th-21st May East Riding of Yorkshire Classic * 11. 27th - 28th May Tour of the Kingdom Stage Race Next Event: 12. 10th - 11th June: Robert Hobbs Memorial Stage Race 13. 23rd June Manx International Road Race 14. 9th July Five Valleys Road Race 15. 30th July International Tour of the Cotswolds RR 16. 6th August Havant International Grand Prix 17. 13th August Glasgow - Dunoon Hayward Tyler Classic 18. 10th September International Tour of the Peak RR 19. 17th September Gun Hill Premier Race * RACES COMPLETED Colour-Tech Espoirs Road RaceEdenbridge, Kent UK, May 28 Tom Southam wins on 19th Birthday
The race was held on a day in Europe when wet weather caused havoc. In Holland, the last stage of the Olympia Tour was cancelled due to the wet weather and on the way to the Espoirs race in Kent, we had to drive through roads flooded by the heavy rain. There was even talk before the race of the event being cancelled but after an inspection, the race was given the go ahead. The large field of under 23 riders from all over the UK was flagged away with the skies clearing and the wind blowing a gale. The course for the race was a rolling 15 mile circuit with a number of long climbs. Although some said it wasn't that tough, the fact that riders were being shelled out the back from the first climb said otherwise. Other hazards on the road included a number of large pools of water at the bottom of descents and although this didn't pose a great problem to the riders, the cars stopping for the water were bound to cause havoc and after the problems of the week before when a stray sheep caused a major crash, many of the riders were nervous before the start. As far as I know though, there were no instances during the event which is good to hear. Amongst the starters were the UK WCPP under 23 riders (riding for Alsager/Adidas) and the Linda McCartney squad including last week's winner James Griffiths. On the first lap and up one of the climbs past where I was stationed for the moment, the group was being strung out by eventual winner, Tom Southam followed by David McGowan (ProVision). The next time round however and a small group was away with two riders from the WCPP squad, Tom Southam and Dan Bridges plus David Clarke, Robin Sharman, James Griffiths and David McGowan. They were being chased by Daniel Lloyd (Raleigh) and Niel Swithenbank (Alsager/Adidias). This it turned out was the winning break but behind, the peloton was being shaken up by kiwi Ben Powell (Team Synergy), who instigated a number of chase groups with one eventually sticking and among the 6 or so riders with him was Gore Bike Wears John Ibbotson. While the front group were for the main, working well to keep their lead which yoyo'ed between 30 seconds and many minutes, behind, the chase group was not working well which is why with more than two laps to go, Ben Powell attacked, taking with him, David Clarke (Alsys-Bradgate CRT) who was climbing well acording to Ben. These two quickly established a lead over the other chasers and although loosing around 20 seconds a lap to the break up front, they were not being threatened by the group behind which was fragementing as each lap went by. Noticable by their abscence in the peloton towards the end were Jamie Alberts and Steve Cummings who after marking the chase behind, withdrew from the race with two laps to go. It was with around two laps to go that Dan Bridges (Alsager/Adidas) attacked the lead group and quickly established a good lead, one that looked solid enough until James Griffiths (Linda McCartney) attacked with around a lap to go and quickly crossed the gap and attacked past Bridges with many looking on expecting Griffiths to go on and repeat his win of last week. It wasn't to be however, however as Tom Southam attacked with the help of a tailwind and quickly crossed to Griffiths. On the finishing climb, Southam made sure Griffiths didn't spoil his birthday party by winning easily from Griffiths with Swithenbank (Alsager/Adidas) making it a 1-3 for the UK team by outsprinting the remenents of the break which were spread out over a number of seconds at the end of a long and arduous race. Dan Bridges managed to hold on to the break to ensure a top 7 placing while Ben Powell (NZ/Team Synergy), came in a fine 8th in his first UK under 23 event. Powell had attacked Clarke into the headwind with around 8km to go and on the line was almost a minute clear of his former companion. After the race, Ben spoke freely about the biggest race he has started on this trip to the UK and although dissapointed that a moments hestitation had cost him a place in the break, he was pleased he had proved to himself (and others) he had the legs on the day to mix it with the best under 23's in the UK (and the world ...). Ben is here in the UK thanks to a grant from the Skeggs Foundation which is a Dunedin (NZ) based sports funding charity backed by wealthy local businessman. I know all this because I happened to take Ben to the race (we ride for the same team backed by Landrover and Geest) and had plenty of time on the trip home to quiz him on it. More on Ben and his teammate Heath, in a separate article soon. Footnote: Thanks to the BCF's John Herety for the offer of a ride in the team car which I had to decline as I was looking after Ben. John did tell me after the race that the WCPP team was riding these events in preference to a big race like the Irish RAS in order to support the UK under 23 National Series. John also said that the team would be doing a stage race in Europe in June. More details as we get them. Report couresty of Larry Hickmott at www.echelon-velo.co.uk Results - 144 km1 Tom Southam (GBr) Alsager-Adidas MRT 3.54.48 2 James Griffiths (GBr) Linda McCartney Foods/WCU 0.04 3 Neil Swithenbank (GBr) Alsager-Adidas MRT 1.48 4 Bill Nickson (GBr) Paul Moy Associates 1.50 5 David McGowan (GBr) Pro Vision 1.52 6 Robin Sharman (GBr) Alsys-Bradgate CRT 1.55 7 Dan Bridges (GBr) Alsager-Adidas MRT 2.09 8 Benjamin Powell (NZl) Team Synergy 3.17 9 David Clarke (GBr) Alsys-Bradgate CRT 4.13 10 Mark Perry (GBr) Somer Valley CC 8.46 11 John Ibbotson (GBr) Gore Bike Wear 12 Iain Armstrong (GBr) Ribble Valley 13 Robert Palmer (GBr) Midlothian Race Team 14 Jon Rutherford (GBr) Prickett-Atom Elite 15 John Taylor (GBr) Woolwich CC 16 Daniel Lloyd (GBr) Raleigh Factory RT 17 Lee Finch (GBr) Arctic 2000 RT 18 James Williamson (GBr) Prickett-Atom Elite 19 Gary Wills (GBr) Velo Ecosse 2nd 8.50 20 Karl Freeman (GBr) High Wycombe 1st Cycle Care 13.55 21 David Law (GBr) Arctic 2000 RT 13.58 22 James Holland (GBr) Leader DCS Automotive RT 14.07 23 Stephen Joseph (GBr) Gore Bike Wear 19.48 Overall U23 Series (Provisional): 1. Tom Southam (GBr) Alsager-Adidas MRT 49 pts 2. James Griffiths (GBr) Linda McCartney Foods/WCU 48 3. Robin Sharman (GBr) Alsys-Bradgate CRT 44 |
