Location: Wareham, Dorset
Event: 28-29 September 2013
Report: Eamonn Deane/Snowdon Sports
Scott Gurnett won the Primera Purbeck Two Day after taking second place on stage two.
Seventeen-year-old Gurnett, in his first season, lay in 14th place overnight and fancied a top ten finish.
It was Gurnett’s move across the finish line with five laps to go that set up his win. Taking a five-second time bonus on the line, the Devon youngster pushed on and was soon joined by Mike Ward (Ride 24/7), Sam Gardner (Cannondale), Tony Kiss (Dynamic Bicycles UK/RPC) and Chris Spence (Felt-Colbornes-Hargroves RT).
Working well together, they quickly established a lead of 40 seconds. Race leader, Colton Jarisch (Felt-Colborne-Hargroves RT) missed the move and the race started to slip away from the red jersey rider.
Teammate Spence did not contribute to the pace setting but the gap grew out to over a minute with three five-mile laps remaining.
However, Spence was picking up the time bonuses on the line. The bunch, driven by Guernsey Velo, reduced the gap at the bell but they never got close on the short five-mile loop around Furzebrook.
It was the fresher legs of Spence that took the stage, attacking hard on the steepest part of the climb; he gained time but not quite enough for the overall.
It was a bitter-sweet race for the Colborne team, Robert Ward misjudged a corner on the first lap and ended up in a field. Ward also had problems with his gears that effectively took him out of the race and the service of Jarisch.
John Heaton Armstrong dropped back to help Ward and the pair began to chase only for Heaton –Armstrong to puncture and both failed to finish, it was just one of those days. “That’s bike racing!” Jarisch would ruefully say later.
Scott Gurnett said after the race: “I have not won since February, a couple of springtime pursuits.
“I was not expecting it. I am very pleased but I think my dad is more excited about it than I am. I am normally good after a hard day, I like hills, I live on Exmoor, within two minutes I am climbing, I can’t go anywhere without climbing hills.
“My dad always says I do too much work, he is probably right! This is my first year racing, I want to go as far as I can.”
Chris Spence said: “The break just kind of rolled off, they put heads down and we were gone, I just policed it to be honest, I felt quite bad but that’s what you have to do.
“Two of our guys had crashed, Colton is in the leader’s jersey, I did not know where I was with guys in the move on GC.
“I didn’t want to take it away, win the primes, win the stage but still not win the overall! The break was working really well, Scott was very strong, riding very well. It’s team work, I had to sit on the back I couldn’t drive it, I would have looked an idiot.”
Mike Ward said: “We got away at the prime, we descended pretty fast but we were all a bit wimpy round the corners because of the early crash. I was trying to conserve energy, Chris was sat on the back which was fair enough. Everyone did their fair share. It would be nicer to have a bit more fitness, I have tailed off towards the end of the season, drinking beer and eating cakes do me no good.”
Sam Gardner commented: “I got across to the break pretty quick, the first lap was hard, everyone worked. Chris was not doing very much for obvious reasons, the primes ruined the impetus of the break but that’s racing, when Chris went at the bottom of the climb I did not have much left.”
Tony Kiss added: “Chris was sat on the back, I had a few words with him to get him to work but understand why he didn’t, he rode well and deserved to win.
“The descent was a bit scary, it was slippy on the first few laps, when it dried out it was ok. I knew the Felt guys would be out to control it so I attacked when I could. My legs were tired after two days in the break.”
Results:
Stage two provisional results:
1 Chris Spence (Felt-Colbornes-Hargroves RT)
2 Scott Gurnett (Unattached)
3 Tony Kiss (Dynamic Bicycles UK/RPC)
4 Mike Ward (Ride 24/7)
5 Sam Gardner (Cannondale)
6 Eduardo Martinez Llarena (Unattached)
7 Mike Mottram (AW Cycles)
8 Danny Axford (Arctic Sram RT)
9 Hugh Knudsen (Unattached)
10 Lewis Keightley (primera-Sports.com)
Overall provisional:
1 Scott Gurnett
2 Chris Spence @3secs
3 Tony Kiss @9secs
4 Mike Ward @23secs
5 Eduardo Martinez Llarena @27secs
6 Sam Gardner @31 secs
7 Mike Mottram @48secs
8 Hugh Knudsen @54secs
9 Colton Jarisch @54secs
10 Dan Axford @1m02s
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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.
