Witham Wheelers Road Races
19th July 2009; Thanks to Simon Cocker for words. Photos courtesy of Alan East and more can be found at www.withamwheelers.co.uk
The GT Ellingworth race for J/3/4/L over 77km had a full field of 80 riders, which resulted in a nervous first lap with a crash causing a split in the bunch from which several riders never regained the main group. Julian Grommett was active early on initiating the first break of two riders which at the end of first lap had a 20 second lead.
Near the end of the second lap, he was still dangling off the front, this time on his own but with a five strong group chasing. These made the junction on the third lap to leave a five strong group in the lead 1 minute 10 up on the bunch. These five worked well together extending their lead to 1.40 by the finish with Andy Hayton taking the sprint on the finish hill.
1st Andy Hayton Cherry Valley RT
2nd Simon Owens Peak Road Club
3rd Josh Cole Sports Cover
4th Julian Grommett Peter Dun / Tulip Bikes
5th Chris Thompson VS Cycles
6th Andrew Marsh Dinnington RC
7th Chris Hulme
8th Andy Parr Go Sport Spex
9th Ben Last
10th John Hopper Cottingham Coureurs
GA Bennett
In the GA Bennett race for Elite/1/2/3 over 112 km, a field of 55 riders followed a similar pattern to the morning race, with John Tanner and Steve Lampier taking a small lead on lap 1 before the decisive break of the day went on lap 3 with a 10 strong group quickly establishing a 1min 20 lead. Riding well as a group, the lead extended to 2.30 min, with a lap to go, over the main bunch with two Sportscover rider in the gap chasing, including John Tanner who had missed out on the earlier break.
Despite losing one rider to a crash, the other nine hit the finish hill together with Jon Mozley just proving the stronger in front of Marcin Bialobocki. The best of the chasing riders was John Tanner who closed to within a minute at the finish for 10th place.
1st Jon Mozley Madison.co.uk
2nd Marcin Biablocki Sports Bean Wilier
3rd Steve Lampier KUK Kinesis
4th Jamie Rogers Scunthorpe Poly
5th Kit Gilham Sigma Sport
6th Duncan Muralee Planet X RT
7th Jack Adams Pendragon
8th Ashley Brown SportsCover
9th Andrew Young Derby Mercury
10th John Tanner Sportscover
More Photos
Two leaders lead by Grommett.
