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Report: South East Regional Road Race Championships

Chris McNamara showed he had the stamina and the legs to outsprint his breakaway partners to win the 2011 South East Regional Road Race Championships.142km, four hills and a nice cross wind lay ahead of the 70 or so riders so good stamina and strong legs were in order.

The race saw action also from the whistle, when Jake Martin of Pendragon headed off on a lone adventure after 2kms from the start. He survived thee laps on his own until he was joined by five other riders. Back in the bunch Ian Paine of London Dynamo and Team Cycle Kingdom's Allan Ridler  were stirring things up and with Darren Barclay of Artic Primier, they bridged the gap to the six riders up front. This was seen as a dangerous move, forcing a massive chase by the bunch who, riding through a cloudburst, soon had the breakaway group back in sight.

The attacks soon started again for another lap until a group of 22 riders formed, splintering the rest of the pack into four separate groups. Following some more moves from Alex Higham and Allan Ridler, the decisive move went - Chris McNamara, Ian Pain, and Nick Hutchison countering Higham and Ridler's earlier move and gaining 40 seconds.

Working together the three maintained a lead over the chasing group. With five kms to go it looked like their effort was doomed with the group in sight on the uphill run-in to the finish. Through the last corner the chase group was about 35 seconds behind - would the breakaway trio be caught on the line? Would one of the three make a bid for glory on their?

Ian Pain was the first to show signs of fatigue with Nick Hutchinson poker faced behind his dark glasses and McNamara looking calm and composed - tapping through to do his turns on the front with Nick. The finish loomed, the chase had come to nought. Hutchinson started the sprint by McNamara was on his wheel and had the legs to edge past on the line to take a fine win.

Speaking to Dave Hayward after the event, McNamara said:

"Been wanting to win the regional's for some time, I've always liked the event and always ride well. Tough course today, I new it was going to tough, so time my effort and saving energy keep the legs loose was going to be important. My Team is going to Belgium for some kermesses; looking forward to that, plus we have a guest ride at the Halfords Tour series at Colchester."

RESULTS

1 Chris McNamara. Team Corley Cervelo
2 Ian Paine. London Dynamo
3 Gary Dodd. La Fuga Sigma Sport.
4 Taylor Johnstone. Team de Ver
5 Allan Ridler. Team Cycle Kingdom
6 John Veness. Handsling Racing
7 Alex Higham. WyndyMilla
8 Anders Christenson. Team Cycle Kingdom
9 Rowan Dever. Pasta Montegrappa
10 Alex Ray. Pasta Montegrappa
11 Matthew Miles. In Gear RT
12 Dante Carpenter. Asfira RT
13 Paul Holdsworth. Houndslow & Dist:
14 David Kennett. GB Cycles UK
15 Martin O'Grady. Team Toachim
16 Drew Holmes. Progressive Cycle
17 Richard Prebble. Motorpoint Pro Cycling
18 Kevin Knox. Vicious Velo
19 David Seagar. Kingsnorth International
20 Luke Wallis. La Fuga Sigma Sport

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.