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Location: Gloucester Boating Lake, Gloucester
Event: December 2 2012
Report: Snowdon Sports
John Whittington (CNP – Orbea) stormed his way to a sixth win in the Western League in round ten at Gloucester Boating Lake.
On Friday afternoon, organisers were ready to cancel the event after the torrential rainfall suffered of late had left the area severely flooded.
But the ground recovered quickly enough for a shortened race to be run, with 11 laps clocking in at about four minutes each.
Around 30 riders lined up for the start of the race and from the off it was Whittington and Llewellyn Holmes (Strada Cycles) who found their way to the front with Holmes in pole position.
But Whittington attacked towards the end of the lap and overtook, although Holmes managed to stay with him for a couple of laps.
But the 24-year-old soon picked up the pace and put a sizeable gap between himself and the remainder of the field.
Whittington went on to win by a margin of around two minutes, even though he suffered some mechanical problems on the last lap.
Tim Carpenter of Elite Velo was second and quickest veteran on the day and Steve Brown of Dream CC rode an intelligent race to finish third overall and second veteran.
After exerting so much effort early on, Holmes dropped down to fourth. A mention also goes to Ben Hall (Bristol RC) who fell off into the mud on the first lap but picked himself up and gritted his teeth to finish in fifth.
John Whittington said after the race: “I felt good, I know there were questions over the track because it was held at a boating lake and there were a few more lakes than there should have been today!
“But it was still a good track and the ground was thawing throughout the race so it got muddy and a bit greasy.
“I completed the first laps with Llewellyn and then upped the pace and stayed away. On the final lap my rear shifter got stuck at the top of the cassette so I had to spin the gears a bit. It just got clogged up.
“I’m doing the southern areas next weekend and I’ll do the rest of the Western series to try to win that. Then I’ll do the last National Trophy event and the Nat Championships.”
Results:
Seniors:
1 John Whittington (CNP – Orbea) 11 laps @ 55 minutes
2 Tim Carpenter (Elite Velo) @ 2 minutes
3 Steve Brown (Dream CC)
4 Llewellyn Holmes (Strada Cycles)
5 Ben Hall (Bristol RC)
6 Owen Jeffries (Northern CC/Dave Kane Cycles)
7 Tony Davis (Dream CC)
8 Ian Threadgold (Cheltenham & County CC)
9 Sean Bolton (Swindon RC)
10 Vilas Silverton (Sri Chinmoy CT)
Vet:
Tim Carpenter
U12:
George Britton (Unattached)
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.
