Location: Gosling Sports Park, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire
Event: 10 August 2012
Report: Peter Waghorn/Snowdon Sports
Ideal conditions and increased numbers in the senior category led to a good evening of racing in the latest round of the Welwyn League on the track where double Olympic champion Laura Trott launched her career as a youngster.
Lewis Atkins (Twenty3c.co.uk-Orbea) was in good form in the senior A group, notching three victories and losing out in the concluding 10-mile scratch race by the width of a tyre John McClelland (Prestige VC) in the fastest time of the season.
Veteran Dave Le Grys (Team Terminator) opened his account with a good win in the Group B 10-lap scratch race while Richard Norris (Colchester Rovers CC), happily recovered from a serious accident three months ago, controlled the 10-lap points race to record his first win of the year.
The two 10-lap block handicaps saw the B group given a lead of 250 metrres. They were reeled in by the quicker A group after five laps in the race for odd numbers, but a battling trio - led by Simon Best - in the even numbers race were only caught with a lap to go, showing that a well-organised, hard-working group can profit from a positive start.
Slightly reduced numbers in the three youth groups saw Welwyn’s Sam Dossett clean up in the A series while Cameron Gutteridge was in good form in the B/C group but was chased hard by series leader Mitchell Powell and Frank Longstaff. The C/D/E group were led in by Bob Longstaff.
Trott’s Olympic success has sparked large numbers of youth riders to book in for the forthcoming Saturday morning track taster sessions.
Results:
E/1/2/3/4:
10-lap scratch:
1 Lewis Atkins (Twenty3c.co.uk-Orbea)
2 Kristian Woolf (Prestige VC)
3 Alex Wise (VC St Raphael)
Devil:
1 Lewis Atkins
2 Alex Anderson (Welwyn Wheelers)
3 Andrew Hastings (Metaltek-Scott)
10-lap block handicap – Race 1:
1 Kristian Woolf
2 Sam Gilzean (Welwyn Wheelers)
3 Alex Wise
Race 2:
1 Lewis Atkins
2 John McClelland (Prestige VC)
3 Mark Smith (Welwyn Wheelers)
10-mile scratch:
1 John McClelland
2 Lewis Atkins
3 Kristian Woolf
Senior B
10-lap scratch:
1 Dave Le Grys (Team Terminator)
2 Martin Mead (PCA Ciclos Uno)
3 Ben Smith (Welwyn Wheelers)
10-lap points:
1 Richard Norris (Colchester Rovers CC)
2 Simon Best (North Road CC)
3 Barry Neal (PCA Ciclos Uno)
Youth A
8-lap scratch:
1 Sam Dossett (Welwyn Wheelers)
2 Jordan Mooney (Welwyn Wheelers)
3 Dan Maynard (Welwyn Wheelers)
Devil:
1 Sam Dossett
2 Jordan Mooney
3 Bethany Hayward (Welwyn Wheelers)
8-lap points:
1 Sam Dossett
2 Jordan Mooney
3 Bethany Hayward
7-lap handicap:
1 Jon Chapman (CC Ashwell)
2 Sam Dossett
3 Bethany Hayward
Youth B/C
5-lap scratch:
1 Cameron Gutteridge (Welwyn Wheelers)
2 Frank Longstaff (Colchester Rovers CC)
3 Mitchell Powell (Chelmer CC)
Devil:
1 Cameron Gutteridge
2 Mitchell Powell
3 Josh Roberts (Welwyn Wheelers)
6-lap points:
1 Cameron Gutteridge
2 Mitchell Powell
3 Frank Longstaff
5-lap handicap:
1 Josh Roberts
2 Mitchell Powell
3 Connor Woodford (Willesden CC)
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.
