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Oliphant Rules at Anderside Classic

Anderside Classic (VC Astra), 11 June 2011
Eaglesham, Glasgow
Report: Snowdon Sports

JUST Days after his team-mates had become the first to beat Rapha Condor in the Tour Series, Endura Racing's Evan Oliphant added to the glory when he won the Anderside Classic near Glasgow on Saturday.

Doubling up as the West of Scotland Championships, the race covered 73 miles of tough hills south of Glasgow which provided for some thrilling racing. A group of five riders broke away after just seven miles, and this was to form the nucleus of the race-winning break.

More riders came across from the bunch, and at the 50-mile stage it had swelled to eight riders, including Oliphant and his team-mates Robert Hassan, David Lines and Callum Wilkinson.

They pushed on hard and opened up a maximum gap on the chasing bunch of 1-52, but their advantage began to dwindle and with just nine miles remaining many thought they would be caught with just 24 seconds lead.

But they held on to the finishing loop, and with one mile left they tackled a steep descent which split the leading group in two.

After a tight corner at the bottom of the descent the finish line is just 200 yards further on, and Oliphant gained the vital advantage of being first in to the corner, and held his lead to the line which he crossed just inches ahead of Team Raleigh's Matthew Kipling, while Hassan took third and Lines fourth to cap a great result for Endura Racing.

Result:

1 Evan Oliphant (Endura Racing) 2:58:09
2 Matt Kipling (Team Raleigh)
3 Robert Hassan (Endura Racing)
4 David Lines (Endura Racing
5 Craig Battersby (Team Bglobal) @ 4sec
6 Callum Wilkinson (Endura Racing) @ 16sec
7 Richard McDonald (Stirling BC) @ 42sec
8 Gordon Murdoch (Team Cycle Lanes) @ 1:32
9 Peter Murdoch (Team Cycle Lanes) @ 1:35
10 Gary Hand (Endura Racing) @ same time