The first round of the new Pedal Pushers circuit race league took place at Barkston Heath near Grantham on Saturday, promoted by Witham Wheelers CC.
Despite the early damp conditions over 200 riders took part in the series of races and were rewarded with some excellent racing on the 1km circuit, which is well surfaced with fast corners and favours aggressive riding.
First race up was for the under 12s (CDE) over 15 minutes + 3 laps which was dominated by Jack Ford of Wakefield Tri riding solo for most of the race for a clear win.
Next race was the Under 16s followed 30 seconds later by the under 14s both over 30 minutes plus 5 laps. About 5 laps into the under 16s race James Shaw and Gabriel Cullaigh attacked and as the bunch waited for someone to take up the chase the gap quickly opened up, to such an extent that as the finishing sprint opened up they lapped the bunch with 50 meters to go and James squeezed through to take the win from Gabriel, with Leon Gledhill taking the sprint for 3rd a lap later.
The 4th category only event had a full field of 50 riders and was run over 45minutes plus 5 laps and didn’t see any major breaks but a fast pace and the only minor crash of the day did see riders steadily being tailed off. The bunch sprint being won by Robert Ricketts from Gavin Sykes.
The Ladies only event was started 30 seconds after the 4th category event start with 13 riders of all abilities stayed pretty much together until the 4th cat bunch lapped them and with the better ladies able to keep in the bunch until the finish Gabby Shaw was first followed by Amelia Cambridge with Charlotte Colclough not far behind.
Another full field for the 2/3/4 race saw attacks from the start with the promoting clubs Junior Peter Cocker looking to impress in front of his home crowd prominent amongst them. About 10 laps in 8 riders finally prised a 10 second gap and with no one in the bunch willing to make the effort to close the gap into the tough head wind section the winning break was established and the lead pushed out to 30 seconds.
Despite some individual attacks over the last few laps the break was all together going into the last lap, Peter Cocker lead it out into the final corner however Blake Conley just got round him to take the win with Peter holding on for second and Lee Tunnicliffe third. Tim Allen and Julian Gromett escaped from the bunch with 10 laps to go and did enough to hold onto 9th and 10th without threatening the leaders.
With lots of positive comments about the circuit its hoped for more good fields for the next event in the Pedal Pushers league on Saturday 21st April, promoted by Bourne Wheelers using the same circuit, entries now being taken the BC On-Line entry system.
In its first year there are seven events in the league promoted by various Lincolnshire clubs using circuits at Barkston Heath and Lincoln with one event per month until September. Full league details and race results will be posted on the BC east Midlands web site at http://bc-eastmidlands.co.uk/
Results:
2/3/4:
1 Blake Conley (unattached) 1:15:00
2 Peter Cocker (Witham Wheelers)
3 Lee Tunnicliffe (Clay Cross RT)
4 James Cambridge (I Ride.co.uk)
5 Richard Moore (Squadra RT)
6 Ben Ives (We Love Mountains RT)
7 Nick Coupland (We Love Mountains RT)
8 Richard Lister (Gabby Day Cyclesport)
9 Tim Allen (Clay Cross RT)
10 Julian Gromett (Cottingham Coureurs RT)
Women:
1 Gabriella Shaw (All Terrain Cycles)
2 Amelia Cambridge (VC Rutland)
3 Charlotte Colclough (For Viored)
4 Linda Hubbard (Welland Valley CC)
5 Nicola Moore (Active Copiers)
6 Debbie Barnett (Boston Wheelers)
4th Cat:
1 Robert Ricketts (Univ of Sheffield)
2 Gavin Sykes (VC Lincoln)
3 Lee Ferreday (unattached)
4 Richard Edwards (Spalding CC)
5 Jacob Trotter (Hull Thursday RC)
6 Leigh Holmes (GB Fire Service)
Cat A Boys:
1 James Shaw (Cycle Shack-Forme)
2 Gabriel Cullaigh (RST RT)
3 Leon Gledhill (Planet X)
Cat A Girls: Abby-Mae Parkinson (RST RT)
Cat B Boys: Alex Littlewood (RVO Racing)
Cat B Girls: Charlotte Broughton (Leicester RC)
Cat C Boys:
1 Jack Ford (Wakefield Tri Club)
2 Matthew Ellis (Spalding CC)
3 James Swadley (Nottingham Clarion)
Cat C Girls: Felicity Gledhill (Planet X)
Cat D Boys:
1 Elliot Waters (Mercia HBM CC)
2 Adam Fortune (Kirklees Cycling Academy)
3 Jamie Littlewood (RVO Racing)
Cat D Girls: Piper Radford (Sherwood Pines)
Cat E Boys: Nathan Fortune (Kirklees Cycling Academy)
Cat E Girls: Jemima Gurney (Spalding CC)
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.
