Location: Mountbatten Centre, Portsmouth
Event: 24 March 2013
Mitch Webber (Primera Sport.com) won a bunch sprint at round two of the Omega Circuit Races at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth on Sunday.
He was already two laps up on the bunch along with Rowan Horner (VC St Raphael) at the end of the race.
The young junior rider from Andover along with Rowan got away after ten minutes of racing and soon made the catch on the back of the bunch. Not content with that they then set about putting a second lap into the bunch.
On a bitterly cold and windy day down at the Mountbatten track keeping warm was the order of the day for the riders and spectators alike. It remained dry throughout the day’s racing but the biting wind cut through.
It took Mitch and Rowan 14 minutes to catch on the bunch and they weren’t content with one lap, pushing on to gain another. They had to settle into the bunch for a little bit while everyone sorted out what was happening next.
Three riders Alex Wise (VC St Raphael), Tristan Grigalis (Southampton University RC) and Stephen Campbell (Twickenham CC) tried to jump away together, but they couldn’t make the jump and so came back to the bunch.
So with the two leaders in the bunch several riders tried to attack and soon a group of nine riders formed on the front and they got clean air and after eight laps they had a decent lead and soon they had caught the bunch.
The group of nine included the two leaders Mitch and Rowan, Justin Hoy and Tom Smith (Felt Colbornes Hargroves RT),Simon Brooks (VC St Raphael), Harrison Fielding (Poole Wheelers),Tim Wiggins (Wightlink LCM), Sam Redding (Spin Rotor Primal) and Joe Fox (MG Maxifuel).
With five minutes left three riders Justin Hoy, Simon Brooks and Stuart Thompson (Andover Wheelers) were now driving hard to catch the bunch and un-lap themselves, just they were running out of laps and so they had to be content with the minor places.
At the bell Mitch started to come to the front and he eased away on the line to take the sprint and win the race with Rowan a little behind on the line, Justin was third ahead of Simon. Tim Wiggins finished in the bunch at claimed fifth place.
The third cat race saw a lot of action as attack after attack went away and then came back throughout the 35-minute race.
At the bell Tristan Grigalis soon found his way to the front and he completed a winning weekend after yesterday’s race at Ludgershall in Wiltshire.
The women’s race was a stunning team display by the VC St Raphael riders as they claimed the first five places.
Marianne Britten soon set about getting a complete lap on the bunch and then it wasn’t until five minutes go in the 30-minute race before VC St Raphael started to send others away to insure a team win.
With the time out and three laps remaining Marianne along with Hannah Manley and Ellie Gilham attacked and got some gap while Laura Clode came to the front of the bunch. So on the line Marianne followed Ellie with Hannah third, Laura was fourth and Jenny Hudson completed a VC St Raphael lock out.
James Vanieris (Southdown Velo) won the sprint in the fourth cat race after 30 minutes of racing.
Provisional Results:
1 Mitch Webber Primera Sport.com +2laps
2 Rowan Horner VC St Raphael +2laps
3 Justin Hoy Felt Colbornes Hargroves RT +1lap
4 Simon Brooks VC St Raphael +1lap
5 Tim Wiggins Wightlink LCM
Women:
1 Marianne Britten VC St Raphael
2 Ellie Gilham VC St Raphael
3 Hannah Manley VC St Raphael
4 Laura Clode VC St Raphael
5 Jennifer Hudson VC St Raphael
3rd Cat:
1 Tristan Grigalis SURC
2 Glyn Ostler Blazing Saddles @st
3 Joe Barry Performance Cycles @st
4 Rob Bolwell VC St Raphael @st
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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.
