Bournemouth Arrow Road Race 18/09/10

Richard Horton managed one better than his second place last week with a solo breakaway win in this Saturday’s Bournemouth Arrow Road Race.

Organising club Bournemouth Arrow had done well mustering a full quota of marshals and were rewarded with some wonderful late summer weather. Entries were disappointing, with only 24 riders signing on but then a race on the same course in the wind and rain in March will be fully subscribed while a race on a bright, sunny day in September will struggle for entries.

Even those that turned up were complaining of burnout. Roland Tilley (Ride UK), who is fighting for the league overall with Andy Rivett (VC Raphael) was still suffering from the mountain bike championships last weekend. Many others were suffering stiff legs and took a while to get going, as the field rolled out for the first lap.

Eamonn Deane (Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers) was not one of them. He attacked on the hill out of Horton village along with Robert Cranstone (Royal Navy and Royal Marines CA). However the field had other ideas and they were soon caught. An attack by Roland Tilley (Ride) on the next lap received the same treatment – there was no way Andy Rivett was letting him out of his sight.

On lap three, Eamonn tried again, attacking on the hill and taking Matthew Connor of Banjo Cycles with him. For a while it looked like they were away, pulling out a minutes gap but a concerted effort by a group of six riders riding through-and-off on the front of the bunch slowly dragged them back over the course of the next two laps. A third group, meanwhile, was happily sitting in at this stage in proceedings but more on them later.

If there were prizes awarded for attacking then Eamonn Deane would have been the easy winner for, no sooner had he and Matthew Connor been caught then he went away again, spending a further lap riding about 5 seconds ahead of the bunch.

He was caught on the penultimate lap and at this moment his clubmate Richard Horton made his move. The 18yr old Bournemouth Jubilee rider had been quietly hiding in the bunch, experimenting with his new tactic of not attacking repeatedly. He made his move with a lap and a half to go and had pulled out a full minutes lead.

Behind him, the bunch were more concerned with each other. Roland Tilley did a lot of chasing. Eamonn Deane, understandably, didn’t and Richard remained over a minute up as he turned into the finishing straight. He was delighted to take the win, having found some good form in the late season and was suddenly confronted with the question of how to get to tomorrow’s race in the New Forest to continue his winning streak.

A minute later, Tom Marshall of Chippenham and District Wheelers took second place a few lengths ahead of the chasing pack, with James Jones of Beeline leading in the bunch sprint in third. Andy Rivett (VC St Raphael) came in fourth with Jon Marchini of OUCC splittling Andy from his arch rival Roland Tilley of Ride UK. Chris Roxburugh of Tor 2000 was seventh, inspired by his ride to Glastonbury to see the Tour of Britain, while Shane Pope of Swindon RC was eighth. Grant Grant (were assuming that’s not a typo, its how it was written on his licence) was ninth and Neil Wass of Anders TMG Horizon was tenth.

Full results are here.

Now the series move on to Appelmore in the New Forest for tomorrow’s third WXCRL Sotonia Heath Road Race, where Roland Tilley and Andy Rivett will have their final battle for the overall. Its tight and there has already been a lot of trash-talking, so it should be a belter. Entry details are here but it closes at midnight so you ought really to get a shuffty on if you’re going to enter.

WXCRL Horton Road Race Movie

See Martyn Harris – Banjo Cycles taking his first WXCRL win…

Go to our WXCRL You Tube Channel to see more videos like this.

WXCRL Horton Road Race 10/07/2010

Two riders managed to escape Revo Racing’s best attempts to control the Horton Road Race on Saturday. Martin Harris of Banjo Cycles led home his co-escapee Julian Bray of Dulwich Paragon a good minute clear of the bunch.

Nearly sixty riders made the start, on a warm and breezy morning, with a strong headwind on the return section of the rural circuit. Revo Racing were there in force, as were Sotonia and VC Meudon while, on his own, was Charles Rees from Raleigh Avanti, the feeder team to Raleigh’s Premier series squad.

‘If you do elite races, you get hammered.’ He said afterwards. ‘But if you drop down to seconds, then everybody’s looking at you expecting you to do something.’

He tried, being one of the many riders to attack in the early laps.  Richard Oram of Revo Racing was another, drawing out a big gap but being reeled back within a lap. Shortly after, the race was briefly neutralised due to a nervous horse on the route but all parties got through unscathed and the attacks came again, this time in the shape of Junior Hefferman, also of Revo Racing. He was joined by Jon Norton of InverseRacing/bikefood and, with Junior’s team mates controlling any attempts to chase, they had pulled out a 40 second lead by the fifth lap.

Jon Norton dropped away and Junior Hefferman stayed out on his own for another lap but was caught by lap six.

‘I think I went a couple of laps early.’ Hefferman said, after his 25km, 2 1/2 lap escapade. ‘The guys from Revo did a lot of work for me but the headwind was just too strong and there were too many attacks in the end.’

As well as that, their efforts had weakened the team and there was little left in their legs when the final break of the race went with just over a lap to go.

‘Everyone was slowing into the headwind, so I attacked there.’ Said Julian Bray of Dulwich Paragon, who had travelled down from London for this event and had to travel back up to London imediately afterwards to attend a stag night that evening. ‘A guy came across to me and we stuck at it, working together and holding the gap.’

The ‘guy’ was Martin Harris of Banjo Cycles, who saw the opportunity and took it. Behind them, Revo found themselves spent from their efforts to control the race while the rest of the field were suffering the same after all their attempts to break away. The gap held and the two riders turned the final corner into the finish straight well clear of the rest of the field.

‘We worked on it slowly.’ Said Martin Harris. ‘Each of us doing his bit.’

‘I was cooked by the last corner.’ Admitted Bray

Martin Harris outsprinted him to take the win. Forty seconds later, Edward Griffin lead home the bunch sprint ahead of Ben Macland of VC Meudon, Micheal Cotty of the new Cannondale Racing Team and Roland Tilley of Ride Cycleworks. Results should be appearing here soon, while photos of the race can be viewed here, curtosey of Graham Robins.

The next round of the Wessex League The Summer Road Race is next Sunday, about 3 miles to the South at Holt. A similar course as the Nick Bateson Memorial Road Race but twice the distance and open to 2nd cats.