Solo victory for Gareth

GT Ellingworth Road Race - 05/05/2005 - Gorse Lane, Grantham

After a race long breakaway by Gareth Williams (Cherry Valley RT) with Darren Knight (London Fore Brigade), a deserved victory went to the Cherry Valley rider as he dropped his breakaway companion on the final climb in the last kilometre. Meanwhile, team mate Richard Robinson (Cherry Valley RT) still had his work cut out policing a bunch that made several attempts at closing the gap and Richard was rewarded a 11th place after being delayed by a crash in the final sprint.

The morning had started damp and cold on this narrow road race course around Hungerton, Sproxton and Skillington as the riders set off for the first of nearly 5 laps of the circuit. As soon as the race was de-neutralsied, the Cherry Valley pair went on the attack as they had planned. As the race approached the end of the head wind section and shortly to move into more narrow technical roads after only 2 miles, Gareth seized this opportunity and rode off the front of the bunch and immediately had a small gap of a few seconds over the bunch. After a mile he was joined by Darren Knight and with several other riders failing to cross the gap, the two breakaway partners knuckled down to some hard work over a testing but not too hilly circuit.

With Richard playing the perfect team mate back in the bunch, a chase wasn’t organised and with the two breakaways still working well they built up a lead of 1 minute by the end of the first lap. Still working well and with the main bunch having temporariliy lost interest, which was mostly due to Richard chasing down any moves off the front of the bunch, Gareth and Darren built their lead to 1 minute 40 seconds at the end of the lap 2.

With only 2 laps remaining of this 12 mile circuit, the gap was whittled down to 1 minute and even though Gareth and Darren started to tire, they kept on going as it was looking more and more likely they would be caught. As the breakaway pair took the bell for their final lap, the lead had come down to 40 seconds as Richard was tucked safely away in the bunch still disrupting any serious chases. Gareth and Darren had now been clear on their own for 50 miles and the pair were started to suffer as the temperature rose and the mileage took its toll. One final time in the head wind section saw Gareth press on harder than he had all day and even with though he could feel cramps starting in his legs. By the final lap, an exhausted Darren couldn’t come through and do any more work so with the wind behind on the final leg of the race, Gareth kept the speed above 30mph and leading into the final few kilometres, even with the bunch now at only 20 seconds and Pete Saint chasing hard at the front, the breakaway pair knew they would take the win. Climbing out of the village of Skillington, the Gareth pulled a small gap on Darren but on the down hill section towards the final kilometre Darren got back on. As the pair reached the final climb up to the finish, Gareth pulled clear once again and once he had a small gap of 20 metres Gareth pressed on hard over the last 400 metres alone to take a well deserved victory after 60 miles alone at the front with his breakaway companion Darren Knight in second place.

Only 15 seconds after crossing the line, the main bunch came rolling in at speed headed by Keith Middleton. The bunch was now fragmented after a crash at the foot of the final climb toward the finish which saw Richard caught at the wrong side of the crash. Despite this, Richard made a magnificent effort to close gaps up the climb and put the power down toward the finish and eventually come in 11th place overall.

‘It wasn’t what we really intended’, said Gareth after the race ‘Richard said he felt good today so we said we would just keep attacking one after another until one of us got in a move, but I was expecting to get brought back which would give Richard the perfect spring board to launch an attack’

1. Gareth Williams (Cherry Valley RT)
2. Darren Knight
3. Tom Goodall
4. Keith Middleton
5. Steven Guymer
6. Martin Brown
7. Martion Fenton
8. James Furness
9. Neil Beasley
10. Steve Taylor
11. Richard Robinson (Cherry Valley RT)