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Roy Ludford Memorial Tour of the Milburys 2011

14 May 2011 |Meonstoke, Fareham | Promoted By: Team Axiom | Event Listing
Report & Images: Graham Robins (grahamrobins.net)

The 2011 Tour of the Milburys was a two part stage race, with a time trial followed by a road race after lunch. The Time trial was 6km/4miles and the road race was 110km/69miles.

The morning started off chilly with a strong wind as the 58 riders made their way onto the course to tackle the Time Trial up Teglease Down, finishing on top of Old Winchester Hill. The course climbed all the way so the riders were happy to have a tail wind right up to the final climb towards the finish line. The stage was won by Mike Rudling (Wightlink RT) from Sam Redding GWR Team.

Stage 1 Result
1. Mike Rudling Wightlink RT 10min 22secs
2. Sam Redding GWR Team @1sec
3. Ben Anstie Adeo Cadence Racing Team @4secs
4. Danny Axford Arctic Premier @6secs
5. Mike Simpson GS Henley @11secs

The road race stage started cloudy the wind had dropped but the temperatures also dropped as the bunch rolled away towards the start. The bunch climbed up towards Corhampton down for 2km before turning right to the start the race proper. The riders would have to complete 8½ laps and there were to time bonuses awarded for each passage of the finish line except the first time.

The first lap saw the usual attacks as riders looked for space on the road. On the second complete lap a group of three riders got a small gap and they worked together to open up a gap of about 25 seconds over the bunch. The three were James Dobbin (Adeo Cadence Racing Team) team mate Tom Marshall and Hefin Price (Port Talbot Wheelers).

Just behind these three was Sam Redding (GWR Team) who soon caught the leaders and started picking up the time bonuses along the way, putting him as leader on GC on the road. However Sam's lead was soon lost on lap four when he punctured and had to get a wheel from the service vehicle. This was not to be Sam's only visit to the service car during the stage.

With the leading group now down to three the gap seemed to stay around the 30 seconds with the front of the bunch being covered by the hard working Adeo Cadence Team as they had two riders up the road. As the race entered half distance the sun came out to warm up the riders and it wasn't long before splits started to appear in the bunch which allowed about six riders to get across to the leading three. One of the riders bridging the gap was Danny Axford who later said that once he got across to the leaders his plan was to ride away, however once across he didn't have the legs to attack and slowly slipped back.

This group of nine soon became eight when Karl Hine (Adeo Cadence Racing Team) having done a lot of work dropped back. Another rider doing well was Matthew Melville (awcycles.co.uk) and he soon came to the front to drive the race along. Sam Redding now had his second stop for a puncture and that was his race over.

With Just over a lap to go the eight riders including Tom Marshall, Matthew Melville, Paul Derrick (Bad Tri-Fred Baker Cycles), Andrew Boyd (Revo) and Julian Bray (Dulwich Paragon) started to pull away from the bunch as they worked together and their lead went out to 2minutes.

As the riders came into view on the finish line the eight had been whittled down to seven and it was the Adeo Cadence rider Tom Marshall on the front with his head down sprinting into the head wind, and he hung on well to finish just ahead of Julian Bray, by about a bike length. Junior rider Brennan Townsend continued his great season claiming third.

Tom Marshall claims the second stage win from Julian Bray and Brennan Townsend

A quick post race conflab between the commissaires and time keepers revealed that, provisionally Ben Anstie had wrapped up a good afternoon for the Cadence Racing Team by claiming the overall from Danny Axford and Jim Cartridge, all three of whom backed up strong rides in the time trial with loss limiting performances in the road stage.

Stage 2 Result
1. Tom Marshall Adeo Cadence Racing Team
2. Julian Bray Dulwich Paragon
3. Brennan Townshend Mid Devon CC
4. Danny Axford Arctic Premier
5. Matthew Melville awcycles.co.uk

Overall Result (provisional)
1. Ben Anstie Adeo Cadence Racing Team 3hrs 17mins 15secs
2. Danny Axford Arctic Premier 3hrs 17mins 27secs
3. Jim Cartridge Adeo Cadence Racing Team 3hrs 17mins 47secs
4. Julian Bray Dulwich Paragon 3hrs 17mins 48secs
5. Brennan Townshend Mid Devon CC 3hrs 17mins 52secs
6. Matt Melville awcycles.co.uk 3hrs 17mins 58secs
7. Tom Marshall Adeo Cadence Racing Team 3hrs 18mins 05secs
8. Karl Hind Adeo Cadence Racing Team 3hrs 18mins 19secs
9. Sam Redding GWT Team 3hrs 19mins 06secs
10. Tom Kirk Team Zappi's 3hrs 19mins15secs

British Cycling would like to thank the organising team, officials and everyone else who helped promote this event. Our sport could not exist without the hundreds of people, many of them unpaid volunteers, who put in many hours of hard work running events, activities and clubs.