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Junior Townshend wins First Pursuit

Event: February 19, 2011 | Event report Mark Dolan  | Photos Ann & Richard Owens
 
Mid Devon cycling clubs Junior, Brennan Townshend from Chagford, rides to a fantastic solo victory in Saturdays first pursuit race of the season whilst Ali Holland (Primal Europe) was the victor in the second dedicated Womens Pursuit which started earlier in the day.

The ladies were split into three groups spread over four minutes. This years event attracted 20 female riders and as a dedicated womens event is growing well in stature every year. All three groups came together one lap from the finish and a tactical battle ensued with Ali Holland and Angie Pike (Shred Racing) launching several attacks only to be brought back into the bunch.

At the foot of the finishing hill, twelve riders were still in contention, Miriam Freemantle launched an early attack and nearly held off the fast finishing Holland for the win. After the event Holland was impressed with the standard of the racing and was full of praise for the event.

Open Pursuit
On a dry spring sunny day, which even saw Mid Devon club chairman Andrew Perkins decide to apply the fake tan to his legs the first time this year, riders from all over the country couldn’t have had better conditions to start their first race of the season.
 
The Race promoted by the Mid Devon Cycling Club is a handicap race which allows riders of all ages and abilities to compete on a level playing field. A group of 10 juniors were under starters orders at 2.30pm closely followed by the first group of 22 senior fourth category riders 2 minutes later. Another 3 minutes saw the start of the group of 20 third category riders leave, then it was a minute to the first tier of second category riders and another minute to the second tier of second category riders.

Finally the first category and Elite riders were set off at 2.39. This group included former Tour De France stage and Paris Roubaix winner Magnus Backstedt!
The Juniors set a good pace from the start, never looking under threat of getting caught by the fourth category riders. At the back of the race though the second tier of second category riders were working well and making good ground averaging a speed of 26 mph for the race, sweeping up the rest of the second category riders by lap two. In the meantime the third category riders had reeled in the fourth category riders.
 
At the rear of the race, the 11 Elite and First category riders had their work cut out starting nine minutes behind the head of the race. Averaging a race speed of 28 mph, they were still determined to try to get to the front of the race with Pendragon Le Col and Team UK Youth driving the group hard. Lap three saw the second category riders sweep up the third and fourth categories. The Mid Devon riders who had been driving the second category train now slowed down, starting to work for Brennan under orders from team leader Andy Parker who knew Brennan was still at the front of the race and strong enough to beat the other juniors.

 
Attacks started flying out of the main bunch thick and fast now with riders realising the juniors were not going to get hauled back in. The Mid Devon all worked well to police the moves, watching them all come back to the bunch. The handicapping times set up by Ken Robertson and Andy Parker from the Mid Devon CC proved to be extremely well judged. The Elite and Second category riders caught the main bunch with five miles to go and went straight to the front to try to pull the group of five juniors remaining back. The time gap was coming down rapidly now and the juniors looked set to be caught right on the line.
 
Junior Brennan Townshend saw the danger though and attacked at the bottom of the long finishing hill. The bunch caught two of the juniors on the finish hill, but Brennan stayed away winning by six seconds proving he is a name to watch for the future. Junior George Pym from Exeter wheelers came second with fellow Junior Jack Plummer from Somerset RC third.

Peter Vincent from the Mid Devon was the first of the main group home in fourth place, Junior Daniel Mckimm from the Bristol development squad held off for fourth, The first elite rider in was Yanto Barker in fifth place. It was a successful day for the Mid Devon CC (Le Col- Colin Lewis Cycles) with six riders in the top twenty including Jake Durant, Andy Hitchens, Andy Parker, Alain Drury and Mark Dolan. A well organised event thanks to Ken Robertson who is at present recovering from an heart operation. All those in the cycling community who know him wish him a very speedy recovery.

More Photos from Ann & Richard Owens - click here

Results
1. Brennan Townshend MDCC
2. George Pym Exeter wheelers CC
3. Jack Plummer Somerset RC
4. Peter Vincent MDCC
5. Daniel Mckimm BDCA
6. Yanto Barker Pendragon Le Col
7. Junior Heffernan Primal Europe
8. Doug Dewey GWR swindon cycles
9. James Stewart Team UK Youth
10. Jake Durant MDCC