Location: Milton Keynes Bowl, Buckinghamshire
Event: 17-18 August 2013
Report: Gordon Wiseman/Snowdon Sports
Photos: Gordon Wiseman

Ben Stockdale won the final stage of the MKCA/Phil Corley Cycles 2-day road race and with it the overall title, edging out day one leader Jake Hales.

With an eye firmly on the future, the event was organised at quite short notice by the Association and their long-term supporter Corley Cycles with financial support from Bletchley-based accountancy firm H.W.S.

The action started with a 6.6-km team time trial over six laps of the Bowl’s inner circuit and was followed by a rain-disrupted 60-km criterium which should’ve taken place over one of the longer combinations of roads circulating the Bowl but was switched to the inner circuit after rain caused a number of spills.

Thirteen five-man teams lined up for the time trial and Team IG Sigma Sport used the local knowledge of Hales and Matt Jones to the full to beat Metaltek-Knights of Old RT by just one second.

MG-Maxifuel Pro Cycling took third place a further seven seconds back with first-team off, Team Corley Cycles hanging for an excellent fourth place with their quintet including 17-year-old junior Ben Chapman.

First over the finishing line, Newport Pagnell’s Hales donned the white jersey of race leader.

With a strong wind blowing across the criterium circuit, riders were conscious of the black clouds that had been forming during the break and after around 20 minutes racing, the expected rain started to fall.

Almost immediately on re-entering the main Bowl area, Chris Dredge (Team Spirit) was pushing just that bit too hard at the front of the large group of riders forcing the pace and came down with Simon Wilson (Team Corley Cycles) following suit behind him.

The surface soon caused a number of other incidents and the organisers made the wise decision to quickly transfer to the inner circuit, racing in the reverse direction to the time trial.

Breaks went off the front and were all brought back, leaving the outcome to a sprint finish which was won by Will Fox (Metaltek-Knights of Old RT) ahead of MG-Maxifuel’s guest rider Tim Allen with Hales in close attendance in seventh place to retain the leader’s jersey ahead of Sunday’s 130-km road stage on the Astwood circuit.

Results:

Stage 1 (6.6-km team time trial)
1 Team IG Sigma Sport (Jake Hales, Matt Jones, Ryan Mullen. Andrew Griffiths, Will Goulbourne) 8-13
2 Metaltek-Knights of Old RT (Will Fox, Dexter Gardias, Ben Stockdale, Chris Bartlett, Tom Stockdale) at 1 sec
3 MG-Maxifuel Pro Cycling (Jamie Scott, Liam Stones, Will Bjergfelt, Jamie Caldwell, Tim Allen) at 8 sec
4 Team Corley Cycles at 12sec
5 Pedal Heaven RT at 16 sec
6 Team Spirit at 18 sec
7 Twenty3c.co.uk-Focus at 23 sec
8 CC Luton at 25 sec
9 Milton Keynes CA At 35 sec
10 High Wycombe CC at 37 sec

Stage 2 (60-km circuit race)
1 Will Fox (Metaltek-Knights of Old RT)
2 Tim Allen (MG-Maxifuel Pro Cycling)
3 Lewis Atkins (Pedal Heaven RT)
4 Ben Stockdale (Metaltek-Knights of Old RT)
5 Will Bjergfelt (MG-Maxifuel Pro Cycling)
6 Chris McNamara (Pedal Heaven RT)
7 Jake Hales (Team IG Sigma Sport)
8 Luke Ryan (Twenty3c.co.uk-Focus)
9 Matt Jones(Team IG Sigma Sport)
10 Jozef Metalka (Beeline Bikes RT)

Stage 3 - 130km Road Race

Leaving his race winning move until inside the last kilometre, a hot and very tired Ben Stockdale (Metaltek-KOO) won the third stage – and the overall - of the inaugural MKCA-Corley Cycles Two Day and declared himself more than pleased with his and his team’s efforts over the two days racing.

With the overall positions being covered by just seconds going into the final stage it was always going to be the case that the leading teams would want to be represented in any significant break and that’s exactly what happened with the break of the day containing around a dozen riders opening up a gap of 1min 55secs with around half the race distance completed.

They were slowly reeled in and with less than 2 laps to go the two leading groups reformed to be 30 strong but two riders – Richard Wood (Arbis LLP/Colberts Cycles) and Chris Bartlett (Metaltek-KOO) – slipped away and very soon had opened their own gap of just under a minute.

With Metaltek represented in that break – Chris Bartlett was lying 7th overall after the second stage – the Stockdale brothers and Will Fox could afford to sit in and let the others undertake the chase.

Team IG Sigma Sport – for overall race leader Jake Hales - and CC Luton were seen to be working furiously to consolidate their own positions but as the field remerged as the race readied itself for the final climb into Astwood, in the final kilometre Ben Stockdale launched his race winning move.

Hunched over his bike just seconds after crossing the finishing line, Stockdale breathlessly explained how he saw the race.

“In the closing laps we had Chris (Bartlett) away at the front so we could just follow Sigma and make them do all the work. But even then I wasn’t completely sure it’d all come back. With a lap to go the lead was around 40 seconds so we just covered all the moves. But when we regrouped my brother Tom went over the top and then inside the last kilometre I went passed him.

“We’ve now had two back to back race wins so this is great but boy, I had to spring for nearly the last kilometre up hill to get the win. This is a great course and the whole race has been really good with a great atmosphere”.

Stage 3 Result:
1. Ben Stockdale (Metaltek-KOO) 2hrs 48mins 52secs
2. Liam Stones (MG-Maxifuel) @2secs
3. Simon Wilson (Team Corley Cycles) @ 3secs
4. Dean Shannon (Twenty3c-Focus) @ 3secs
5. Will Bjergfelt (MG Maxifuel) st
6. Jake Hales (Team IG Sigma Sport) st

KoM
Tom Stockdale (Metaltek-KOO)

Overall
1. Ben Stockdale (Metaltek-KOO) 4hrs 48mins 52secs
2. Jake Hales (Team IG Sigma Sport) @ 5secs
3. Liam Stones (MG-Maxifuel) @ 4secs
4. Will Fox (Metaltek-KOO) @ 1sec
5. Tom Stockdale (Metaltek-KOO) st
6. Ryan Mullen (Team IG Sigma Sport) @ 2secs

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.