Long breakaway for Gareth

Bridlington Autumn Road Race - 21/08/2005 - Burton Fleming

Gareth Williams finished with a 5th place from a seven-man breakaway that stayed clear of the bunch for over 70 miles of a short undulating course in the Bridlington CC road race on Sunday 21st August 2005. Deserved race winner was Steve Marrows (GB Fire Service) from Grimsby. Meanwhile, after several attempts at sneaking off the front to take 8th place, Richard Robinson settled for a place in the bunch.

The race covered 9 laps of a short 8mile circuit which had one long climb of 1km from Burton Fleming Village up to the finish line, then turning left towards Wold Newton and then left again back to Burton Fleming where the riders turned left again to face another climb of the long drag up to the finish and into the wind.

Pre-race tactics between Richard and Gareth were discussed before the race and a plan was drawn up for Gareth to go on the attack and draw some riders with him leaving Richard fresh in the bunch to take over the attacking when Gareth’s group was caught.

The race started as planned and after a small group of riders went clear in the first mile, they were soon brought back and another attack of two riders went clear. Seizing the opportunity, only 1 mile into the race, Gareth sprinted clear of the main bunch and soon caught and passed the two breakaways as he hit the main decent of the day at over 45mph. Gareth stayed clear for another 3 miles on his own and was quickly joined by 4 other riders. This small group worked well together for the rest of the first lap before shedding one of the breakaways on the climb over the finish line. Just a few miles later the breakaway riders, including Gareth, were now joined by Steve Marrows and Stuart Axcel (GB Fire Service) and another rider. Holding only a handful of seconds over the main pack, which still contained Richard, the break didn’t look back and just worked hard to establish a lead that moved up to 50 seconds after 3 laps. Despite several interruptions, including tractors that slowed down the breakaway and at one point the break had to pass the lead car which was also stuck behind a tractor, the break was now well into its rhythm and working well with no riders missing turns and being driven hard by Steve, Stuart and Gareth.

As lap after lap ticked by and the heat of the day rose to 26C, the break still never gained more than 50 seconds over the bunch and with 2 laps to go Richard had a dig at moving off the front of the bunch around the back of the circuit. This move almost worked as he was joined by Steve Wakefield (Lindsey Roads) but after several miles of freedom it was slowly bought back by the bunch.

With only 2 laps remaining, the breakaway started to slow a little as they tired and the bunch was now breathing down their necks at only 35 seconds. A second push at keeping the rhythm going saw the break still clear as they took the bell with just 1 lap remaining.

On the run into Burton Fleming for the final time, Richard had one final attack which saw him stay clear but get caught in the final kilometre, eliminating his chances of winning the bunch sprint.

Despite some attacks by Steve Marrows and Stuart Axcel, the breakaway stayed together and continued to work for the last 5 miles to keep the bunch off their backs as they edged ever closer. Turning into the village of Burton Flemming for the final time, the bunch were now only 20 seconds behind and the breakaways couldn’t afford to start messing around. Nothing was left to chance as one the riders took the responsibility to stay at the front and keep the rhythm going up the final kilometre until the 200 metre flag were Steve and Stuart started winding the sprint up and immediately opened up a small gap of 20 metres as Steve crossed the line with arms aloft. Despite suffering cramps for the last 15 miles, Gareth dug deep to finish in 5th place from the 7 man breakaway, which had successfully stayed clear for over 70 miles.

An experienced Steve Wakefield brought the bunch sprint home comfortably, while Richard was happy to finish in the main pack.

‘I didn’t think the break would stay away for the whole race’, said Gareth afterwards, ‘I thought we would get caught with about 3 laps to go as we would start getting tired but no one was missing turns and we stayed clear. I was disappointed for Richard because we had planned to try and get him into the results today and I was also suffering cramps which stopped me from sprinting properly at the end’.