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British Cycling Elite Circuit Series #1 - NE
Crawley, Great Britain, May 20, 2007
Gaywood grabs Crawley victory
By Gerry McManus
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Simon Gaywood (Plowman Craven/Evans RT) showed his sprint prowess when he powered his way to victory in the first round of the British Cycling Criterium series in Crawley, East Sussex.
Gaywood came off the wheel of Dean Downing (Rapha/Condor RT) and sprinted across the finish line first after an hour and five laps of combative racing action to clinch the narrow victory. The former national junior track champion had made the winning break with Downing, Warrick Spence (CycleFit/Serotta) and Tom Barras (Merlin RT) that had almost been caught in the closing stages.
This race result comes on the back of his win in the Archer Grand Prix in April and Gaywood was emotional at the finish. "I am quite shocked to be honest with you," he said. "The team's been great and I have been training really hard. After I won the Premier Calendar event it has given me so much confidence and one of my aims this year was to win one of the rounds of the criterium series. Now I have won the first round and I can't ask for more than that.
"I know Warrick (Spence) can sprint but I knew Dean would give me a hard run for my money and I put it in the biggest gear I could turn over. I got a bit nervous when he started to squeeze me across the right hand side of the road in the finish but he was kind on me and I just managed to get round him.
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"In the last few laps Dean took a couple of flyers up the road and Tom (Barras) and Warrick tried too," continued the sports therapist from Leighton Buzzard. "I just had to mark them as best I could. I thought it was all three of them against me at one stage. It was good that I had the legs to mark them and still have it for the gallop at the end."
Tom Barras was delighted with his podium place in the event. "I have had three wins for the team so far and I am pleased that I was able to make the podium on the bigger stage against some of the best riders in the country," said Barras. "I have been racing in Belgium for six years and this is my first year back. With two laps to go the bunch nearly caught us and I had to make a big effort and that tired me for the sprint. But we would have been caught otherwise. I would rather be third than ninth."
Second place didn't ruin Downing's weekend and he was fairly happy with the result. "We rode pretty hard in the break," he said. "I think I went a bit too early in the sprint and Simon got round me. Warrick goes so fast round corners and he put 10 metres into us when he went round the twisty section on the back of the circuit. I got a pretty good run at him round the last corner but then Simon was on my wheel. He rode a good race."
How it unfolded
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The weather had been kind to the 49 starters in the small town a few minutes travel time from the huge international airport at Gatwick. Plowman Craven were the team with strength and quickly set about taking turns to attack in the early stages with Gordon McCauley taking the first of two sprint primes of the day and the Kiwi professional used the gap to stay clear for a few laps with Matt Holmes (Artic Shorter RT).
The main field was being vigilant and the breaks came back fairly quickly due to riders' attempts to jump across to the leaders rather than in a concerted chase. It was obvious to most that if a Plowman Craven rider was in the leading group then it would have a good chance of staying away. Spence had ideas of his own and made a couple of efforts of going clear at full tilt to no avail.
Strongman Rob Hayles (Team KLR) looked the most frustrated at the Plowman Craven tactics. Former race winner Malcolm Elliott was at a similar numerical disadvantage as Hayles but stayed close to the front keeping down low to the bars around the tight corners so that he could maintain his speed and hold his position.
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A small number of riders had made the mistake of staying at the back and drifted even further backwards as the blistering pace took its toll. McCauley took the second sprint prime and the race was all together. The winning quartet went clear with around twenty minutes still to race and the move was to prove decisive. The group was intent on staying clear and worked well together taking the cornering lines perfectly around the back of the circuit with the tight left hander and the chicane. Justin Hoy (Felt Racing) was one of the key chasers with Plowman Craven playing the policing role.
The lead was up over 30 seconds as the clock ticked down after around an hour of racing but it nearly changed in just one lap. As the leaders started to attack each other, Malcolm Elliott led the charging bunch through the chicane less than 50 yards from the back of the leaders and it looked like curtains for the break. Barras must have seen the danger and put in an explosive effort just in time and one lap later the leaders' margin had been regained.
With the four leaders still together at the bell it was Warrick Spence who made the first move going 10m clear with Downing in hot pursuit. Downing caught the New Zealander but this gave the perfect lead out to Gaywood who clinched victory much to the delight of his team mates and girlfriend.
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Defending his 2006 series victory, Malcolm Elliott managed to get sixth spot to score some points that might prove valuable later in the year. "When that move went it looked like it was going to stick," said Elliott. "I was surprised that we brought them back so close as I had pretty much given up on it. Rob Hayles was clearly the strongest man in this race and he put in some big efforts chasing but we were stifled by numbers of the Plowman Craven team really."
"I have not been feeling too well lately and I can't be disappointed with sixth really," he continued. "When the break started coming back so quickly in the semi-darkness, I looked up and thought we must be catching lapped riders. I was getting glimpses of them going round corners and I was trying to establish if it was the break or not. For them to be so close, we could have easily caught them. In the last few laps it was all or nothing. If had just had a bit more 'all' and a little less of 'nothing' we could have made up those handful of seconds."
Results
1 Simon Gaywood (Plowman Craven/Evans) 1.07.30 2 Dean Downing (Rapha Condor) 3 Tom Barras (Merlin RT) 4 Warrick Spence (Cyclefit/Serotta) 5 Rob Hayles (Team KLR) 0.02 6 Malcolm Elliott (Pinarello RT) 7 Jon Mozley (Merlin RT) 8 Tony Gibb (Plowman Craven/Evans) 9 James Taylor (Plowman Craven/Evans) 10 Matt Holmes (Arctic Shorter RT) 11 Chris Tune (Sigma Sport RT) 12 Gordon McCauley (Plowman Craven/Evans) 13 Ross Muir (Rapha Condor) 14 Ian Holt (Felt Racing) 15 Jason Allen (Plowman Craven/Evans) 16 James Millard (Plowman Craven/Evans) 17 Justin Hoy (Felt Racing) 18 Luke Rowe (Recycling.co.uk) 19 Simon Ernest (Felt racing) 20 Dan Duguid (Sigma Sport) Sprints 1 1 Gordon McCauley (Plowman Craven/Evans) 2 1 Gordon McCauley (Plowman Craven/Evans)
