WXCRL Portland Port & Lloyd Coward Memorial Road Race 06/06/2010

Team Tor 2000 took a sound result in this Sunday’s Portland Port and Lloyd Coward Memorial Race, with a rider in nearly every escape, George Gori winning from a three man breakaway and Jason Duckworth heading the chasing bunch home.

The race, a regional B category, running for 76km on roads around Worgret Heath near Wareham, was open to riders of up to third cat level. These are the sort of riders that make up the majority of the Wessex league, so it seemed only fair to give them a ‘proper’ race all to themselves. They seemed to appreciate the opportunity, with over fifty riders making the start and riding an aggressive race full of breakaways. Ironically, a race planned for the previous day at Barnsfield Heath had been cancelled due to lack of entries, which does fly a little in the face of the opinion that road racing is on its way out of favour in this country.

The field of over fifty riders rolled out of the hq at 10am on a warm, humid morning and, after a slow initial few km, the first lap saw a couple of breakaways plus a lot of chasing, mostly by Mark Hardwicke of Bournemouth Arrow. Up to the finish line to complete the first half lap, one of his club mates attacked. Rupert Silman of Bournemouth Jubilee went with him and by the turning on to the Bovington Road, the two of them had a lead of 20 seconds. They held it down the hill past Monkey World and along the length of the Wareham Road but with its combination of long, straight roads and a draining headwind up the hill (or not so much a hill as a 5km long false flat) the circuit was not a friend of breakaways.

Not that that seemed to stop the riders. The breakaway was caught but almost immediately another had gone: Chris Halls of Tor 2000 attacked and, despite another furious dig by Mark Hardwicke, by the end of the lap he was 15 seconds clear.

“The team had discussed before hand to take it easy on the first lap.” Said Chris Halls. “And then try to get in every break going.”

Then, according to clubmate Jason Duckworth, “We ripped the legs off the bunch and sent Chris up the road.”

They succeeded, as did Graham Wyatt of Velocity Bikes Cycle Club, who had joined him by the run back down the hill.

“I’d been ill lately after a really good start to the season.” Graham explained. “I haven’t done a race for 3 weeks so I had to have a go to see where I was at. I knew we had no chance of staying away but you’ve got to give it a go sometimes. It gets boring sat in the bunch.”

He also mentioned a ‘rest day’ in his training schedule the next day and an evening on the tiles on Sunday night.

“I had to do something today just so I could justify going for a few beers tonight.” Graham is very much a rider of the old school.

The two of them worked very well together, pulling out 35 seconds on the bunch after a 60 km/h plunge down the hill past Monkey World and then onto the Wareham Road, where they found the same problems as the previous breakaways. The road is long and straight and they were rarely out of sight of the bunch. That said, they held the gap and continued to hold it up the hill with a gap of 30 seconds at the start of the next lap. This time, a solitary rider bridged across in the shape of Jason Duckworth, with a downhill attack that Gee Atherton would be proud of.

“I was using the 11 sprocket a lot!” He said afterwards. “I saw the break being pulled back so I jumped across to give them some momentum.” Not everyone in the break agreed with this interpretation of events.

“I thought the break was working better with two guys.” Said Graham Wyatt. “With three it got a bit lumpy and I think we lost our rhythm.”

Whatever the reason, on the run back up the hill, the three riders had sat up and were swallowed up by the chasing pack. The next attack came immediately.

“The tactics were to get in a break.” Said Chris Halls. “And if that didn’t work, then George would go next.”

And so, sticking to the plan, George Gori of Tor 2000 went next. Peter Bolke of DH Cyclesport and Phil Reynolds of Fareham Wheelers went with him, pulling out a tantalisingly small 20 second gap at the start of the final lap.

“We went just after Graham’s group had been caught.” Said Peter Bolke. “We got a gap but were never out of sight of the bunch. There wasn’t any time for tactics, it was just a case of everybody getting their heads down and working together.”

The gap hovered at around the same all the way along the Wareham road although by the final turn it seemed apparent that they would stay away. But with a 5km climb into a head wind still to come, the escapees weren’t taking any chances.

“We didn’t slow down.” Said Peter. “We didn’t have time to play tactics. There wasn’t even a sprint as such, George just came through stronger than the rest of us and strung us all out.”

Sure enough, George Gori of Tor 2000 powered his way up the final climb to win from Phil Reynolds of Fareham Wheelers and Peter Bolke of DH Cyclesport. Not an awful lot of seconds back came the bunch, led in by Jason Duckworth – still with a sprint in his legs after his huge bridging effort barely a lap earlier. Just behind came first ‘local’, Sean Conway of Bournemouth Arrow. A full list of finishers should be appearing here soon.

All in all, it all went swimmingly and it just remains to congratulate organising club Cycle Club Weymouth, who mustered a full squad of marshals and ran a well organised event. Just don’t forget to turn up in similar numbers and race with similar aggression next Saturday morning at Barnsfield Heath. Once again, we REALLY need numbers and, as Saturday’s cancellation proved, if ya don’t use it you loose it.

All photos Graham Robins. Many more available at grahamrobins.net. All for sale. He’s not just standing at the roadside for the good of his health, you know.