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WXCRL Autumn Road Race
Sunday 12 September 2010
Report: Gordon Skillen
Andy Rivett of VC St Raphael continued his late season run of form this Sunday, winning from a two man breakaway with Richard Horton of organising club Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers. The club's Autumn Road Race suffered a fairly low turnout (29 riders) and a last minute change of venue - the original route had been due to run across the heath land from higher row to the cross keys pub but after the installation of cattle grids in the spring, the heath now had ponies and cattle roaming across it, which was considered an unnessacary hazard.
A new route was hastily drawn up, running through Gaunts Common and dropping down past the Horton tower and through a sweeping series of bends into Horton village. The HQ had also shifted, to Witchampton, which caught a few people out, not least somebody (cough) who'd posted the venue change onto this very website - cutting and pasting without actually bothering to check the content.
But it all came good in the end, with the field rolling out for the 10.30 start, lacking a few heavy hitters, who were riding either at a cyclocross event up the road or an MTB race up north. However, there was some international flavour in the shape of Ann Bowditch of Science In Sport, who was getting some race miles in in preparation for the commonwealth games in Dehli next month. Men's 2nd cat racing, you will be flattered to know, is about as fast as international level women's racing. Ann, who will be riding for Guernsey, was getting acclimatized to the pace, although sadly not the heat.
The pace was fairly high on the first couple of laps, with plenty of breakaways. Philip Peters of Cannondale Racing and James Cartridge of Inverse Racing made a go of it on the first lap, getting about 10 seconds up before getting pulled back again. On the second lap, Michael Leech of Tor 2000 went away on his own. Jason Flooks of ProBikeKit.com, who had been getting jumpy in the bunch, went after him.
Turning into the junction by the Horton Inn, it all went horribly wrong for him as he went wide on the exit of the corner, lost the back end trying to get back over and slid into a 4×4. He suffered some nasty road rash, as well as snapping his back wheel and frame and was a little surprised to discover that the car immediately behind the 4×4 that he had hit was a Police armed response unit. They helped clear up the mess, while the bunch came round the corner about 40s later, squeezed through and set off after Leech.
By the next lap, Michael Leech had been joined by Junior Hefferman of Revo Racing and James Cartridge, making in his second breakaway of the morning. They were drawn back largely by the work of Charles Rees of Raleigh RT, who was doing some huge turns on the front but lacking enough of a kick to drop the riders behind him.
Next to try to get away was Eamonn Deane of Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers, which caused some amusement as he had organized this race. However there is nothing in the rules against winning a race that you set up and Eamonn certainly wasn't ashamed to be doing so. Despite a 30s lead at one point, he was chased down by Charles Rees of Raleigh RT, who was starting to get a little fed up with doing all the work.
Still, his efforts, plus those of few others, split the bunch, with nine riders breaking away. Richard Horton (Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers), Phillip Peters (Cannondale Racing), Tom Marshall (Chippenham and District Wheelers) and Andy Rivett (VC St Raphael) put some hurt on up the hill to Horton getting some distance between themselves and the pack and then, coming up through Furzehill for the last time, Andy Rivett made his move.
"After the split, everyone had sat up a bit." He said. "So I just went really hard on the hill." Richard Horton of Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers made it across to him.
"I didn't want to initiate an attack on the first three laps." He said. "I don't like holding back. But after the third lap Eamonn got away, so obviously I didn't want to attack him. Then a couple bridged across to him and that was the winning break formed. I knew Andy was strong so when he went I went after him." They put some fast miles in, with thirty seconds over their co-escapees as the turned onto the Cranborne road for the final time.
At the final turn, into Hinton Martell, Andy Rivett cramped up, taking most of the finishing straight to get his sprint going. However he did and beat Richard Horton to the win.
Richard got second, very much upholding club honour after some good tactical riding split between him and his club mate. 25 seconds back, Thomas Marshall of Chippenham and District Wheelers, the last of the escapees came in third, three seconds ahead of Philip Gough of Red Kite Cycles. Behind them came the rest of the breakaway group: Ian Cullen of Le Col came in fifth, Eamonn Deane (Jubilee) sixth, Philip Peters (Cannondale) seventh, Junior Hefferman (Revo Raving) eighth. A very knackered Charles Rees (Raleigh RT) was ninth, at the back of the group, and then Stephen Locke (Plan B Racing) led the rest of the field home three minutes back.
Full results are here. No photos we're afraid, our photographer was busy shooting people with knobbly tyres riding round a field. Apparently they pay better!!!
