Location: Cranfield, Bedfordshire
Event: 2 June 2013
Report: Snowdon Sports
Mark Baines (Spirit Bikes RT) took victory in the Neil Gardner Memorial Road Race in Cranfield, one of only two elite category races held on the day. This led to a strong field entering with 17 elite and 30 first category riders lining up at the start.
After 50 miles, there was a break which eventual winner Mark Baines, 27, was a part of, along with two team mates who worked well with him.
Ten miles later there was yet another break which thinned out the leading field and left a group of around 25 riders to compete for the victory.
Just before the bell lap, Baines put his attack in and managed to open up a gap of 25 seconds going into the last five miles of the race.
He managed to hold that lead and soloed up the final climb to hold on for a fantastic win. Spalding RC’s Tom Neal was second and the posium was completed by Mike Debney of London Dynamo.
Mark said: “It went really well today, the team plan was just to cover the moves and then if we were around the front by the end of the race then to just strike for home.
“I think we did a really good job as a team and always made sure we were represented. It helped that I had two team-mates with me in the break after 50 miles.
“I’ve no plans for next weekend, we’ve got a weekend off but then we going to a block of hard races with the premier calendar.”
Results:
1 Mark Baines (Spirit Bikes RT)
2 Tom Neale (Spalding RC)
3 Mike Debney (London Dynamo)
4 James Stuart (Kuota Spinergy)
5 Perry Bowater (MG Maxifuel)
6 Owen Lake (Twenty3c.co.uk)
Please credit www.britishcycling.org.uk and link back if you use any of our race results.
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.
