Divisional Road Race Championships
- 22/5/2005 - Barrow on Soar, Leicestershire
Richard Robinson and Gareth Williams flew the Cherry
Valley colours in the East Midlands Divisional Road
Race Championships on Sunday 22nd May. The course was
testing with one major climb in it at Waltham on the
Wolds which the riders tackled 9 times. The course covered
some wide and relatively clear roads from Barrow on
Soar, Burton on the Wolds and Waltham on the Wolds in
dry and sunny conditions but with a strong southerly
wind making the racing hard in places.
The race was run off at an average speed of 25mph over
90 miles and with such a strong field the racing was
always going to be hard with inevitable breaks in the
70 strong field of riders.
At the end of Lap 1 the field were still all together
with all attacks being brought back and a very fast
ascent the first time up the climb at Waltham. By the
end of Lap 2 there was a break of 15 riders which formed
but didn’t contain pre-race favourate Scott Gamble
who had finished 10 in the Lincoln GP only a few weeks
earlier. Having just completed the second lap, Gareth
jumped across to a small 3 man group that had just clipped
off the front of the main pack. This was short lived
and brough back after 2 miles before Scott Gamble launched
his attack which was the last time the main bunch saw
him.
With Richard and Gareth safely hiding away in the main
bunch for the first 4 laps a reasonably organised chase
was put together byu the main bunch and about 15 riders
including Richard and Gareth were working well and making
good in roads into the breaks further up the road. By
the end of Lap 4, the main buch had brought back one
of the smaller breaks but the leading break had still
gained ground and split into two other groups giving
three groups on the road. Throughout Lap 5 and 6, the
break was being held at around 1 minute 30 seconds.
During Lap 7, 5 riders were dropped from break as Daniel
booth and Pat Foley apply pressure, meanwhile Scott
Gamble attacks the second group and tries to ride across
the gap to reach the leaders taking Paul Wilkes (team
Bradgate) with him.
By Lap 8, Paul Wilkes is unable to maintain the chase
and Scott Gamble continued alone to join Daniel Alexander,
Richard Hunt and Alec Lesley (Team Bradgate) who have
been dropped from the lead group on the previous Lap.
Meanwhile, both Richard and Gareth were starting to
suffer cramps in the warm conditions on the climb.
On the final Lap 9, the leading break of now 10 riders
continue to gain ground on the chasing group of 4 but
by the finish the sprint for the line taken cleanly
by Daniel Booth to win the race. With Gareth leading
the bunch around most of the final lap with help only
given by Steve Marrows, the main bunch were now a few
minutes behind the winners group as they accelerated
up the climb for the 9th and final time with 3 riders
attacking hard at the bottom and quickly opening a gap.
As the main pack reach the top of the climb, Gareth
accelerated away to cross the gap alone over the next
mile but the other riders attacked at the feed zone
to leave Gareth alone again with just 1K to the finish
but Gareth held off the chasing bunch which contained
team mate Richard for both riders to get top 30 finishes.
Both Richard and Gareth were happy with after both
had suffered recent illness and are still on the rode
to recovery.
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