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British Men's Junior and Espoir road championships - NE
Long Crendon, Great Britain, May 27-28, 2006
The Program
Two national road titles on offer in UK
By Gerry McManus
The British men's junior and espoir road race titles will be decided in Buckinghamshire roads over the weekend of May 27-28 in events organised by Doug Collins and the Twickenham CC on behalf of British Cycling. Both events are based on the same course on the edge of the Chiltern Hills at the town of Long Crendon near Thame, which will ensure that the winners are deserving of the title of national champion. However, the weather for the races is likely to be different, with heavy rain forecast for the juniors on Saturday but the espoirs are expected to see a little sunshine on Sunday.
Juniors
77 starters in the junior event will compete on the undulating 121 km course on two circuits. The short 8 km circuit is completed 11 times with a tough climb of nearly a mile to the village of Chilton making it tough for the riders, but excellent for spectators, who will undoubtedly be clad in wet weather gear. The riders then move on to the larger finishing circuit, hearing the bell as they go through the finish for the first time. They will have already climbed up the mile-long climb to the village of Ashendon, descended at over 40mph into Dorton and struggled up the long drag to the finish at Camp Farm near Chilton, and the strong riders will have identified themselves at this stage. The final lap will be the stern test that many have encountered before.
Glendene CC/Bike Trax has entered a team of nine riders with Alex Dowsett and Andrew Griffiths among the favourites in the event where previous winners like Steve Cummings, Yanto Barker, Matt Brammeier and Adam Norris have progressed successfully into the pro ranks.
Griffiths and Dowsett finished first and second overall in the opening round of the 2006 Reynolds/Michelin Junior Road Race Series in the two-day Martyn Ashfield Junior Classic in April with teammates Peter Kennaugh and Matthew Rowe winning the stages for an impressive team result. And let us not forget Jonathon Bellis' emphatic win in the Junior Tour of the Peaks at the end of April, showing his climbing and endurance abilities over a similar distance.
Glendene hasn't had it completely its own way this season with Le Coq Sportif–Dolan team's Steven Burke, Mark McNally and Adam Bonser in a 1-2-3 sweep of the series lead after four counting events.
Steven Guymer (Team Swift) could just benefit from any indecision by the stronger teams and showed form finishing third in the Peaks race. This is a major opportunity for riders to make a name for themselves and team orders could be thrown out of the window.
The racing starts at 14:15 from the HQ in the village of Long Crendon.
Espoirs
The reward for entering the senior ranks for the older lads is an extra 34 km upgrade from the junior race. Sunday's U23 event will cover an extra two laps of the energy sapping finishing circuit to complete 155 km.
Starting at 11:30 from the Oakley village HQ, the peloton ride neutralised to the circuit without last year's winner Ben Greenwood (recycling.co.uk) who is away on GB international duty. However, there is no shortage of talent waiting to take his crown.
Recyling.co.uk is still within striking distance of keeping the title within the team following Dale Appleby's great rides in the British Cycling Premier Calendar this year, finishing top ten in the Archer GP and Rutland Classic races. The Welshman is just outside the top 20 in the BC Elite rankings this year.
2003 junior champion Matt Brammeier (DFL/Cycling News Litespeed) will be looking to add the Espoir title to his palmares and is one of many of the 67 starters who ride without team support. Glendene have only four riders, including Kristian Downs, son of former professional Bob, and Artic Shorter Rochford RT and Kinesis UK field three each, making control of the race difficult.
In short, the race could be anyone's this year, but with note to Plowman Craven's Tom Smith and Adam Norris. 18 year-old Norris from Romford in Essex was last year's junior champion and the first year senior has already built up a strong base of miles in Premier Calendar events working for Malcolm Elliott. Weshman Smith is already an accomplished road and track rider and the 19 year-old has held national titles at junior and youth levels.
It's more of a lottery in this type of race but previous winners include Charlie Wegelius currently in the Tour of Italy with his Liquigas team who won the event in 1999.
Start list
Juniors 1 Alex Dowsett (Glendene CC / Bike Trax) 2 Russell Hampton (Glendene CC / Bike Trax) 3 Jonathan Bellis (Glendene CC / Bike Trax) 4 Matthew Rowe (Glendene CC / Bike Trax) 5 Peter Kennaugh (Glendene CC / Bike Trax) 6 Andrew Griffiths (Glendene CC / Bike Trax) 7 Luke Rowe (Glendene CC / Bike Trax) 8 James Lord (Glendene CC / Bike Trax) 9 Shaun Hurrell (Glendene CC / Bike Trax) 10 Alex Wise (www.agiskoviner.com) 11 James Boyman (www.agiskoviner.com) 12 Scott Elliot (www.agiskoviner.com) 13 Kyle Tilley (www.agiskoviner.com) 14 Kevin Barclay (Merlin Development Squad) 15 Adam Tranter (Merlin Development Squad) 16 Jason Crombie (Merlin Development Squad) 17 Rhys Lloyd (Merlin Development Squad) 18 Simon Holt (Merlin Development Squad) 19 Scott Thwaites (Merlin Development Squad) 20 Steven Burke (Le Coq Sportif - Dolan - SIS) 21 Mark McNally (Le Coq Sportif - Dolan - SIS) 22 Adam Bonser (Le Coq Sportif - Dolan - SIS) 23 Tom Snape (Twickenham CC/Evans Cycles) 24 Charlie Emery (Twickenham CC/Evans Cycles) 25 Ed Allen (Twickenham CC/Evans Cycles) 26 Ben Lowe (Twickenham CC/Evans Cycles) 27 Sam Webster (Kinesis UK) 28 Jonathan McEvoy (Kinesis UK) 29 Alistair Carr (Wolverhampton Wheelers) 30 Christopher Dales (Wolverhampton Wheelers) 31 Tom Last (Evans CRT) 32 Ross Creber (Evans Cycles) 33 Matthew Ullmer (Eversham Cycles) 34 Tom Copeland (Fit-For) 35 Kirk Jenns (PCA) 36 Kieran Frend (CC Giro) 37 David Williams (BC Private Member) 38 Ryan Smith (Sport City Velo) 39 Tom Smart (VC Deal) 40 Bonar Lizaitis (Team Synergy) 41 Ross Yates (Pedal Power RT) 42 Edward Griffin (Somer Valley CC) 43 Tim Morris (Newcastle RC) 44 Josh Varty (Wheelbase) 45 Luke Marlow (Lutterworth CC) 46 Louis Charity (Team Corridori) 47 Callum Wilkinson (Edinburgh RC) 49 Owen Davies (Big Cow) 50 Oliver Graham (Wyre Forest) 51 Lewis Cowley (Plan B) 52 Luke Allen (Universal CC) 53 David Fletcher (Sherwood Pines) 54 Llewellyn Kinch (Swindon RC) 55 Steven Guymer (Team Swift) 56 Stephen Adams (Sherwood CC) 57 James Leach (Didcot Phoenix) 58 Harry Penn (Interbike RT) 59 David Sinclair (i-Team) 60 Ben Stockdale (Eversham Wheelers) 61 Thomas Burman (Team Economic Energy) 62 Nathan May (Team Quest) 63 David Jakeman (Team Sirius) 64 Tom Price (VC ST Raphael) 65 Tom Diggle (Kuota) 66 Matthew Greaves (Bronte Wheelers) 67 Andrew Whitehall (Johnstone Wheelers) 68 Matt Green (Crawley CC) 69 Warren Flynn (Obri Coaching) 70 Luke Clarke (Verulam CC) 71 Liam Holohan (Batley CC) 72 Darren Tiffen (Unattached) 73 Billy-Joe Whenman (Marin UK) 74 Ian Pugh (Liverpool Century) 75 James McNally (St Helens) 76 Robert Smith (Cleveleys RC) 77 Thomas Butt (i-Team) Espoirs 1 Ed Whitehorne (Glendene CC / Bike Trax) 2 Kristian Downs (Glendene CC / Bike Trax) 3 Chris Bartlett (Glendene CC / Bike Trax) 4 Will Hedden (Glendene CC / Bike Trax) 5 Peter Bissell (Arctic/Shorter/Rochford) 6 Ryan Bonser (Arctic/Shorter/Rochford) 7 Tim Wallis (Arctic/Shorter/Rochford) 8 Sam Thompson (Kinesis) 9 Pete Williams (Kinesis) 10 Mark Thwaites (Kinesis) 11 Tom Smith (Plowman Craven RT) 12 Adam Norris (Plowman Craven RT) 13 Phillip Dougall (Ashfield RC) 14 Owain Lovell (Ashfield RC) 15 Richard Kent (SIS) 16 Stuart McManus (SIS) 17 Andrew Gough (Portswood Cycles) 18 Phillip Gough (Portswood Cycles) 19 Wouter Sybrandy (Hounslow & District) 20 Paul Dean (BC Private Member) 21 Matt Clinton (MikeVaughan.co.uk) 22 Defied (Team Continental) 23 William Smyth (Team Milton Keynes) 24 Matt Rugman (Kingsnorth Int) 25 Russell Shingles (Ingear RT) 26 Tom White (UVCA Troyes) 27 Tomas Swift-Metcalfe (Centro de Ciclismo) 28 Shannon Durrant (Pearson Cycles) 29 Richard Hepworth (3Molinos Murcia) 30 Josh Andjelkovic (Team Velocity) 31 Tobyn Horton (Guernsey) 32 Alistair Stoddart (Bouwel Cycling Team) 33 Michael Gardner (Heron Cyclesport RT) 34 Dale Appleby (Recycling.co.uk) 35 Ian Legg (Red Kite Cycles) 36 Marc Perry (WPC Jeugdteam) 37 Jon Mozley (Merlin) 38 Scott Merrilees (Twickenham CC/Evans Cycles) 39 Nino Piccoli (Kings Lyne CC) 40 David MacLean (Heron Cyclesport) 41 Alex Atkins (Evans Cycles) 42 Thomas Murray (Batley CC) 43 Sean Poulson (VC Azzurri) 44 Ryan MacLachlan (Cottingham Coureurs) 45 Chris Opie (VC Aubenas) 46 Mansour Youssef (Loughborough) 47 Chris Ward (Red Kite Cycles) 48 Jack Ibbotson (Doncaster Wheelers) 49 James Sampson (Stilton RT) 50 James Stewart (Le Coq Sportif) 52 Andrew Wyper (Heinz von Heiden) 53 Levi Huck (Pinarello) 54 Sean Newington (Northbeach Dooleys) 55 Lewis Meadows (Cleveland WH) 56 Adam Thomson (BC Private Member) 57 Charles Tennick (Stealth RT) 58 Daniel Shand (West Pennine) 59 Scott Chalmers (WV Eemland) 60 Matt Brammeier (DFL) 61 James Spragg (Tarbes) 62 Paul Cox (FSA) 63 Euan Adams (Red Kite Cycles) 64 Daniel Davies (www.agiskoviner.com) 65 William Thompson (GB Cycles) 66 Chris Doel (Pacific RT) 67 Steve Lampier (Tarbes)
