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Reading Track League Round 8 (June 21)

Story posted July 5; by Guy Swarbrick

Round 8 of the Reading Track League season saw the return of the Derny paced races – this time for the Senior As and the Under 14 Youth riders. A glorious sunny evening provided the finishing touch to a great evening of racing. The evening opened with a 10 Lap A-B Block Handicap and it looked for a long time as though the Bs would stay away.

Nick English of Reading had other ideas though and finally managed to bridge the gap going into the final lap and went through the B field with George Withers of Palmer Park Velo. English and Withers crossed the line together to take the A and B wins, respectively with Matt Gittings (AW Cycles) and Ian Greenstreet (Newbury RC) finishing off the A places and Trevor Bradbury (Reading CC) and Rob MacCullough (VC10) rounding out the Bs.

In the first of the heats, last year’s Senior A Derny Paced Champion – and runner-up in the National Derny Paced Championship earlier this year – Gittings took a comfortable win from team mate Stephen Bradbury. A slight miscommunication between Nick Abraham and pacer Dave Dentus left Abraham riding a quarter of a lap un-paced, but he held on to take third and a place in the final.

The other heat was closer - English and Greenstreet booked their places in the final leaving Cam Swarbrick of Team Terminator and Gavin Mitchell of Twickenham CC to battle it out for the last final slot. Swarbrick, paced by Andy Pitt, looked to have a comfortable lead going in to the final lap, but Mitchell and pacer Sean Bannister had other ideas and as they came out of the final corner they were side by side. Both riders dropped off their Dernys as they charged for the line, with Swarbrick just winning the sprint on the line.

The final was somewhat more one sided and while it wasn’t a surprise to anyone to see Gittings take the win, the margin of victory was impressive – lapping everybody up to and including 2nd place English. As Gittings and his now regular pacer George Gilbert cruised serenely around the track, English, Bradbury, Greenstreet, Swarbrick and Abraham battled round to finish, exhausted, in that order.

With the Senior A Derny races dominating the programme, there wasn’t much on offer for the Bs, but they did get a Points race in while the As recovered ahead of the Derny final. William Macke of Palmer Park Velo dominated, taking 11 points ahead of Ian Black (Norwood Paragon) with 8 and Withers with 7. After the previous week’s ultra-short Unknown Distance, normal service was resumed – which must have disappointed Sam Sturgeon of Team Terminator who made an early break, but was reeled in by Charlie Fawke of One Life Development Squad on the bell lap. Fawke took the win from Donal Linehan of Newbury RC with Oliver Newlan taking the B win for Twickenham CC ahead of the Palmer Velo duo of Withers and Macke.

Newlan was first B home in the AW Cycles 20k as well, with Bradbury Senior and Frazier Carr of Palmer Park Velo 2nd and 3rd. Gittings capped his dominant performance in the Derny races with his first 20k win of the season, ahead of Bradbury and Abraham. The top Under 14-Under 16 riders had all performed well in the Derny racing, too – with Jason Pitt taking the 20k win from Josh Ansell and Abigal Denus. It always helps to have a decent warm-up!

RESULTS

Senior A
10 Lap Block Handicap
1 Nick ENGLISH Reading CC
2 Matt GITTINGS AW Cycles
3 Ian GREENSTREET Newbury RC

Derny Paced Races
Heat 1
1 Matt GITTINGS AW Cycles
2 Stephen BRADBURY AW Cycles
3 Nick ABRAHAM BC Private Member

Heat 2
1 Nick ENGLISH Reading CC
2 Ian GREENSTREET Newbury RC
3 Cam SWARBRICK Team Terminator

Final
1 Matt GITTINGS AW Cycles
2 Nick ENGLISH Reading CC
3 Stephen BRADBURY AW Cycles

Unknown Distance
1 Charlie FAWKE One Life Development Squad
2 Donal LINEHAN Newbury RC

AW Cycles 20k Endurance
1 Matt GITTINGS AW Cycles
2 Stephen BRADBURY AW Cycles
3 Nick ABRAHAM BC Private Member

Senior B
10 Lap Block Handicap
1 George WITHERS Palmer Park Velo
2 Trevor BRADBURY Reading CC
3 Rob MACCULLOCH VC10

Points
1 William MACKE Palmer Park Velo 11 points
2 Ian BLACK Norwood Paragon 8
3 George WITHERS Palmer Park Velo 7

Unknown Distance
1 Oliver NEWLAN Twickenham CC
2 George WITHERS Palmer Park Velo
3 William MACKE Palmer Park Velo

AW Cycles 20k Endurance
1 Oliver NEWLAN Twickenham CC
2 Trevor BRADBURY Reading CC
3 Frazier CARR Palmer Park Velo

Ladies
10 Lap Block Handicap
1 Sarra BOYD Mildenhall CC
2 Nicci MEADOWS AW Cycles

Points
1 Sarra BOYD Mildenhall CC
2 Nicci MEADOWS AW Cycles

Unknown Distance
1 Sarra BOYD Mildenhall CC
2 Nicci MEADOWS AW Cycles

AW Cycles 20k Endurance
1 Sarra BOYD Mildenhall CC

Sonim Under 14-Under 16 20k Endurance
1 Jason PITT Palmer Park Velo
2 Josh ANSELL Palmer Park Velo
3 Abigail DENTUS Palmer Park Velo