Location: Hillingdon circuit, London
Event: 14 December 2013
It was a great day for a race at Hillingdon – mild but windy – but perhaps even more pleasing was to see 19 ladies starting in the Go-Race for first timers. The race itself produced mixed results – many obviously enjoyed it and said so: unfortunately several riders failed to listen to the simple briefing instructions before the start and that coupled with a crash in the first few laps meant the race didn’t really work out as planned.
Despite the ensuing chaos in the Go-Race event the 4th cat race was lively with Twickenham CC's Chris Whitehouse, Darren Austin and Andy Hancock attacking and pushing from the front. However, of the three Whitehouse became the selected rider who escaped with Mike Brewer (London Dynamo) and T-Y Hsia (Kingston Wheelers); they worked superbly together and stayed well ahead of the main chasing group.
In the run into the line Hsia was tailed off which left the other two to fight out the sprint to the line. With a growing headwind making it very difficult Whitehouse proved the stronger, coming round Brewer for a great win, with Hsia holding on for third place. Despite a minor coming together at the end of the finish straight the bunch rode very professionally.
Stephen Harvey (Cardiff Ajax) wins the Imperial Cycles random prize (fifth place) and can look forward to his bike having spa-like treatment for Christmas!
The E123 race was always going to be exciting to watch with the likes of Jake Martin (Pedal Heaven RT) lining up with team mate Rory Townsend; also riding with dispensation was Marcus Burnett (Corley Cycles) and Canadian visitor Samuel Bail.
Martin only waited nine kilometres into the race before attacking hard and pulling away from the main group. It was a scintillating effort and showed his pure power, lapping consistently around the 2 minute 10 second mark. Two riders did detach themselves from the main group - Josh Jones (Cambridge Uni CC) and Dominic Clegg (Redhill CC) who also rode very smoothly and looked unlikely to be caught by the main group.
These three riders totally dominated the race. Martin was obviously a clear winner and Jones just got the better of Clegg. Martin's team mate, young Townsend led in a fast sprint for fourth place holding off Handsling’s Vince Halpern.
A significant crash in the last lap has led to great deal of post-race debate regarding the race within a race format with the suggestion that third cat riders chasing points are causing problems. Review of comments received would suggest that the root cause is simply poor riding by some individuals – as a result the format remain the same.
British Cycling would like to thank the organising team, officials and everyone else who helped promote this event. Our sport could not exist without the hundreds of people, many of them unpaid volunteers, who put in many hours of hard work running events, activities and clubs.
