Newquay Velo hosted its second annual road race at Davidstow last Sunday with an excellent attendance of 69 riders. This was a fifty mile race circuit of seven laps along a tough route with two long climbs. The weather was kind but a northerly wind made the turn back to Hallworthy difficult in a head wind.
Teams throughout the South West competed with a high standard of class riders. Four riders from Newquay Velo competed, they were Rory Parker, Mark Sansby, Tim McEvoy and Mark Barlow.
The start pace was high to start with ten riders dropping off the back in the first lap. Within the first four miles Andrew Perkins for Mid Devon C.C. made the first break but soon to be swallowed up by the pelaton.
Six miles in, Perkin's again attacked - this time taking Jamie Fabrizio of C.S. Dynamo with him, unbeknown to them a crash further back claimed several riders out of the race.
The start of the second lap saw Primal now on the front of the first pack and looking strong and in control. Fifteen seconds back were the second bunch of riders which included Newquay Velo riders. Mark Barlow just missed out on getting on the back of the first group and stayed with the second group.
In the middle of the second lap thirty five riders were half a minute back from three bunches that had formed in front of them.
Primal’s Richard Oram still riding on the front, with team mate Pete Haworth sitting in the bunch of this first group of ten riders.
Going into lap three now with Haworth and Oram of Primal, Jake Durant, Andy Hitchens, Mark Dolan and one other from Mid Devon C.C. Nick Noble of Bristol C.C, Sean Frost of VO2 and Jamie Fabrizio of C.S Dynamo.
At this point even though Primal were down to two riders in the first pack, they looked to be the stronger over the others. A third of the riders racing were now left in the race.
Andy Hitchens of Mid Devon in the leading group broke off up the climb towards Hallworthy. Into the fourth lap Mark Dolan hit hard and went on an attack. The second group of riders were now two minutes off the first group so Dolan knew it was all about this first group of riders.
On lap five Oram and Haworth of Primal attacked onto the front with the remaining five riders chasing and they didn't let them go too far ahead before the bunch brought them both back on a cruel hill into a head wind at the top before dropping down to Hallworthy again.
This was where it was all about to change. Haworth made another attack from the bunch of seven, rode strong and made a thirty second gap towards the start of lap six. Oram sat back with the rest of the chasing group, ready to maybe make his move on the climb to his team mate, but this did not happen, Oram stayed in the bunch.
Last year’s winner Jake Durant dropped off the lead group at the start of lap six in the climb out. Now the group were down to five, with Haworth still on the front at least thirty seconds ahead.
Average pace for this race was 23/24 miles per hour and picked up even more in the final lap. Haworth was out of sight and gone from the others chasing, so within the leading bunch a fight was on for placings behind Haworth.
Nick Noble made a strong break quarter of the way round this final lap, then more attacks from Oram and Hitchens but the final hill towards the finish, saw attacks for high placings which was very close up to the finish, with Oram finishing second, Noble third, Hitchens fourth, Dolan fifth and Frost sixth.
King of the Mountains was Jamie Fabrizio of Cycle Sport and first placed fourth category rider was Sean Frost of VO2.
Results:
2/3/4:
1 Pete Haworth (Primal Europe)
2 Richard Oram (Primal Europe)
3 Nick Noble (Bristol RC)
4 Andy Hitchens (Mid Devon RC)
5 Mark Dolan (Mid Devon RC)
6 Sean Frost (VO2 USM)
7 Andrew Perkins (Mid Devon RC)
8 Jake Durant (Mid Devon RC)
9 Richard Edmond (One and All-Bike Chain-Ricci CC)
10 Steve Cottington (Cadence RT)
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.
