After a brilliant race on Friday evening in the Elite Circuit Series we turned our attentions to Sunday with a 110 mile road race. A report below from British Cycling lets us know how it went.

After a number of early breaks, George Atkins and Ian Bibby managed to build a lead before being caught on the finishing course.

One Pro Cycling got their tactics right in the end, ensuring that Opie, 27, crossed the line first in a bunch sprint.

It is Opie’s third win of the season after prevailing in the Les Ingman Memorial and the Harrogate Big Bike Bash.

The Stockton Grand Prix was 110 miles of racing with 10 laps of a large circuit being completed before the riders move on to a smaller finishing circuit for six laps.

The race saw a number of attacks go in at the front right from the off with Tom Bustard of Giordana-Mitsubishi Electric RT being caught after an attempt. Tom Stewart of Madison Genesis responded almost immediately with an attack of his own.

Andrew Coupe of Wheelbase Altura MGD and Ian Wilkinson of Team Raleigh GAC then opened up a small gap at the front but were soon reeled back in.

The first significant break saw a group of 13 riders peel away but it was caught. The race was being contested at a furious pace with the riders covering 28 miles in the first hour.

Next to attack were Daniel Patten of Team Wiggins, Gruffudd Lewis of Pedal Heaven RT and NFTO’s Rob Partridge. Matt Cronshaw (Madison Genesis), Jacob Tipper (Neon-Velo Cycling Team) and Jon Mould (One Pro Cycling), joined them shortly after to make a group of six out at the front.

A group of ten riders then took a 28-second lead off the front with Handley, Auld, Bibby, Partridge, Moore, Cronshaw, Lewis, Patten, Mould and Tipper all involved.

From this break, Ian Bibby (NFTO) and George Atkins (One Pro Cycling) put a huge attack in and went clear at the front. At the two-hour mark, the leaders had covered 55.8 miles.

Atkins and Bibby then worked hard out at the front, extending their lead to 25 seconds.

Jez McCann of Catford CC, SportGrub KUOTA’s Adam Kenway and David McGowan of Pedal Heaven chased Atkins and Bibby down, 27 seconds behind. By this time, the peloton were a minute off the pace.

With two laps to go of the large circuit to go, Roger Hammond has put his Madison Genesis team on the front of the chase and the gap that Atkins and Bibby had worked at started to drop.

However, Atkins and Bibby continued to grind away and were still out on their own with one lap of the larger circuit left.

As the leaders headed towards Stockton for six laps on the finishing circuit, they upped their pace considerably and managed to stretch the gap out to 48 seconds.

After leading the race for 46 miles, Atkins and Bibby did eventually succumb and they were swallowed up by the bunch, controlled by One Pro Cycling. With just one lap remaining, all of the teams jockeyed for position, looking to give themselves the advantage in the bunch sprint.

And it was One Pro who timed their move to perfection, allowing Opie to take victory.

 

 

Speaking after the race, Opie said: “The race went to plan for us, we intended to lead the race out in the last 3km but at one point there were about five of us and a group of 11 with 90km to go and it was a lot earlier than we planned.

“But we eased up then and George went away with Ian, we let the other teams take up a little bit. I was a little bit surprised how keen they were to ride. We had Madison at the front, then Pedal Heaven. It really played into our hands because we knew it kept our plan of going for it at the end. The last couple of weeks have gone really well for me and it all played out.

“The training programme doesn’t feel fantastic when you’re doing it, Steve Benson’s pretty evil. You open your diary and think, ‘I don’t think he likes me very much’. But you go out, you do the ride and you go home and think it was awful and I’ve got to do it again tomorrow. But you get a lot of confidence from doing that.

“I’ve worked with Steve for five years and you still feel like every year is a progression and you rarely do the same training session. He’s a mastermind. A pure genius. I wouldn’t still be racing if it wasn’t for him.

“One Pro Cycling were fantastic today, every rider did exactly what we talked about in the briefing.”

 

Result:

1 Chris Opie One Pro Cycling 110 miles in 3:57.18
2 Jonathan McEvoy NFTO
3 Sam Lowe Raleigh GAC
4 Evan Oliphant Raleigh GAC
5 Graham Briggs JLT Condor
6 David McGowan Pedal Heaven RT
7 James Lowsley-Williams NFTO
8 Steve Lampier Raleigh GAC
9 William Bjergfelt SportGrub KUOTA Cycling Team
10 Ian Wilkinson Raleigh GAC
11 Rory Townsend Pedal Heaven RT
12 Christopher Lawless Team Wiggins
13 Alex Paton Pedal Heaven RT
14 Matt Cronshaw Madison Genesis
15 Will Fox Pedal Heaven RT
16 Andrew Hawdon Raleigh GAC
17 AdriÇÿ Moreno Sala Velosure Starley Primal
18 Thomas Moses JLT Condor
19 Lloyd Chapman Richardsons-Trek RT
20 Jacob Tipper Neon-Velo Cycling Team

Alex Paton claimed victory at the Guildford Town Centre Criterium on Wednesday after lapping the whole field. A report below talks us through how it happened. 

With a lot of the team, having raced the Tour series and now the start of the Elite Crits, it was great to know we would be racing at a local event.  The Guildford crit is a race that each year as a team we try to attend. A great circuit, tough racing, a huge crowd and a very well organised event.

Racing tonight was, Gruff Lewis, Dave Creeggan, Will Harper, Roy Townsend, Max Steadman and myself.  A good quality team.

The race was a good quality field with some good completion on this very fast and short circuit. The cobbled climb is brutal enough a few times, but with lap times well under a minute it was going to become most rider’s worst nightmare.  As a team, our plan was to race at the front and make it as tough as possible.  Last year Gruff and I lapping the entire field!  This year we wanted to be greedy and take the top 3 places.  A tough ask, but very possible with the strength of the team this year.

Straight from the gun, the pace rocketed with Rory hitting the front and driving on.  Initially it was myself, Gruff, Luke Ryan and Richie Mardle that held the front of the race.  However only a few laps in and Rory and I had gained a small advantage of the rest of the race.

The blistering pace had almost destroyed the field with small groups forming.  As rory and I looked to extend our lead, he unfortunately had a problem and had to change bikes.  After initially backing off for a couple of laps and hoping rory would re-join me, I decided to really attack the race solo and gradually started to build a lead to the chasers.

As the race progressed, my lead and the 3 chasers behind gap started to increase and by half distance, I and the chase trio had lapped the majority of the race.  Unfortunately the fast start had taken its toll on Dave and Will who didn’t manage to make the lead groups. Max however was in the main group and doing a great job.

I eventually came round to lap the chase group of Rory, gruff and Luke and managed to ride clear again taking Rory with me.  From then in we rode a strong pace to the finish with Rory sprinting to the line ahead of me.  A great fun event, made even better by the fact that Pedal Heaven claimed 1, 2, 3 and 6 on the night.

Anyone who has yet to race or see the event doesn’t know what they are missing!  A race with an atmosphere as good as any Tour Series or Elite Circuit race in the UK.

Last week saw the begging of the second half for the Brtish Cycling Elite road and the start of the Elite crit series to begin. It started full gas with three tough races in Otley and Stafford. Alex Paton talks us through how things went in stafford on Friday and Saturday with two short reports below.

Stafford Crit –

Making the journey up to Stafford for round 2 of the Elite Circuit Series was Simon Holt, Will Harper, Will Fox, Roy Townsend, David McGowan, Lewis Atkins and myself.

The circuit was a testing one, with plenty of tight turns and quite narrow the whole way round the lap. From his good performance in the first round, Dave had a luxury grid position on the front row, with the rest of us a couple of rows further back, although still positioned quite well in the huge field.

In true crit racing style, the pace rocketed from the start and immediately strung the race out.  Soon enough gaps started to form as people became unable to hold the wheels in front and a large group of 21 had gone clear.  Making the split was David (son of Gowan), Will Fox and myself.  A good team position with 3 in the lead group, however as the pace continued to rise a rider crashed and Will Fox was caught up.  He survived with no real injury but was race over for him with all groups passing him unable to get going quick enough.

While Dave and I were in the front group, others were mixing it up in the 2nd and 3rd chase groups and making good ground.

Towards the later stages of the race Jon Mould eventually clipped away solo for the win with no one else willing or able to chase.  Dave came home 4th or 5th, while I was 15th.  A solid performance all round.

Not 100% sure of all finishing positions, but everyone represented well and raced hard on a circuit that favoured a small group.

 

Chris McNamara claimed 2nd position at the Winchester Crit last weekend after losing out to Easton Ritte rider Al Murrison. A short report below talks us through what happened.

We had strong team representing Pedal Heaven in this race  – on the line were Rob McCarthy, Will Harper, Simon Holt, Mitch Webber and myself.

This race is on a very technical/tight circuit and from last years experience we knew the first few laps and getting good start would be crucial!

The race split very quickly, Mitch crashed heavily on lap 3 but got back up quickly and after a lap out was back in the race – after around 15 minutes their we’re 4 of us left in the lead, last years winner Al Murrison, Jody Crawford, Mitch and myself.

We rode hard together and built up a lead then Mitch and I tried to get one of us up the road but the other two weren’t going to let this happen, we were all together going into the last lap and it ended in a sprint – I got a good jump and thought I could hold on but Al was too fast and came round me in sight of the line.

Mitch did a great ride for 4th having got up off the deck, Rob was in a chase group taking 7th and Will was close behind so a solid day for the team. Close but no cigar!