Location: Croft Racing Circuit, Dalton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire
Event: 3 March 2013
Report: Snowdon Sports
Carl Donaldson (GS Metro) took victory in the final round of the Velo29 Winter Series in North Yorkshire on Saturday after powering through a sprint finish from the final corner.
The 32-year-old Morpeth rider was part of a group of six which held off the field and worked closely until the final lap.
As the riders tackled the last bend of the race, the pace picked up but many of the competitors had nothing left and that left Donaldson to stand up and power to the line.
Carl said after the race: “It came down to the sprint and I’m quite strong in the sprint, so I sat behind an Achieve cyclist when the wind picked up.
“Another guy tried to sprint but had nothing left so I just went through the gears, stood up and got away.
By the second or third lap there was a bit of a break, early on I tried to keep in the top ten and we pulled away but the race became quite disorganised.
“We realised there was quite a gap, we did a lot of talking and decided to work together. We worked well and that allowed me to just sprint off the corner.
“It was my first race of the season so I was a bit apprehensive, I wasn’t sure if I was on par so it was a case of seeing what happened.
“Winter went well and I just want to get points the on board. I had a lot of seconds and thirds last year, I said if I had one win this year I’d be happy but I’ve done that already so I’ll have to change my targets! I just want to push on and get to second category.”
Ian Christie won the 10 lap prime and series leader Jack Rees of Achieve Cycle Coaching finished safely in the bunch to claim overall series victory with 12 points.
Carl Donaldson was second with six points and Harry Tanfield of Herbalife was joint third with James Alder of Velo29-Blackhawk.
The third cat group quickly caught the fourths and a group of nine moved clear establishing a quick lead.
Despite big efforts from Velo29-Blackhawk riders on the front of the peleton, the nine, who later became seven, stayed clear with a final gap of 45 seconds over the chasing group.
The category four race ended with a bunch sprint but Richard Sharp of Clifton CC was a clear winner by three bike lengths.
Results:
E/1/2/3/4:
1 Carl Donaldson (GS Metro)
2 Ian Christie (Columba)
3 Bob Shields (Gosforth RC)
4 Tom Vanrossum (Rock Racing Team)
5 Nathan Hesselwood (Rock Racing Team)
6 Stuart Watson (Columba)
7 Graeme Tate (Achieve Cycling)
8 Dave Shackleton (Wilsons Wheels)
9 Matthew Williams (Hope Factory Racing)
10 Will Haynes (Herbalife)
Cat 4:
1 Richard Sharp (Clifton CC)
2 Jacob Brown (unattached)
3 Donald Bruce (Moray Firth CC)
4 Mark Robertson (Army CC)
5 Gordon Jackson (Hawick CC)
6 Joe Wilkinson (Albarosa)
7 James Moohan (Ashbry Wheelers)
8 David Atkinson (Achieve)
9 Carl Glover (Albarosa)
10 James O’Brien (West Cumbria Tri)
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.
