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17th CIRCUIT DES PLAGES VENDENNES SERIES
St-Jean de Monts, 23nd February 2003

Steve Cummings Wins in France (click for pic on Velomania)

It has been a great day for the Great Britain team today with Steve Cummings winning in style in the St-Jean de Monts round of the VENDENNES SERIES of races in France that the Great Britain mens endurance team are using for endurance and skills training. Starting the race for GB were eight riders, Bryan Steel, Owyn Wallace, Tom Southam, Kristian House, Tony Gibb, Tom White and Steve Cummings, and Russell Anderson and prior to the event, the plan was for riders to go with any moves. The race run over a distance of 140km, (three laps of a 35km circuit and then three laps of a finishing circuit around the town) was held in atrocious conditions with rain lasting for nearly the whole race in temperatures of around 5 degrees.

The course for the race was one that John had already taken the team over and that he says, may well have been a factor in the teams success and the early break. As with any race where you do multiple laps of a circuit, knowing the course only really helps early on because after the first lap, everyone will be familiar with it. And so with the GB team having training over it in the week leading up to the race, John feels it may have helped their confidence in knowing what was coming up the road and then use that info to plan their movements within the race accordingly. An example being knowing when to be at the front of the race and when its okay to be able to sit a few wheels back from the front.

It wasn't just prior knowledge of the course that helped Steve to put in such a great ride however. By his own admission, he didn't have a great race a few days ago when after concentrating really hard early on, he relaxed for a minute and soon found himself caught out and ending up in a group that was distanced by the leaders. It was a lesson that many can learn from because it showed that when you lose position in a peloton, its other riders that can lose a race for you and that's what happened to Steve then. Not today though!

As John says, he's seen Steve in this type of mood before where the anger from not doing well in one race, can be a great motivating factor in another and Steve didn't let his manager down, who prior to the race, had predicted to assistant coach Rod Ellingworth Steve would do a good'n. The winning move came about after around 40km when two French riders got away with Steve, one being one half of the World Madison champion duo (Franck PERQUE) and the other being a rider from Vendee U (Zen) who had an eye on the overall table.

Despite never having a gap bigger than 1 minute 15 seconds on a flat course, they managed to hold on to the finish but it was ever so close. So tight in fact that the GB manager had a "Plan B" in place if Steve was pulled back, which was for Tony Gibb, silver in the World Scratch Race last year, to be the chosen rider for GB in the bunch gallop. Part of Tony's skills work for today was to battle for a place in the bunch gallop to help get more expereince in that area but with Steve having done such a great job out front, hopes were high that Tony could take the win had Steve been pulled back. In the end, it wasn't necessary although John tells me that Gibby did manage a top 20 place in the gallop behind Steve.

Helping Steve stay away was a Vendee U rider who had eyes on the overall classification. As the finish got ever closer and so did the group behind, the Vendee U rider attacked, dropping the French National team rider and together with Cummings, the two of them held onto a slender lead of no more than a handful of seconds. The drama of the win was made all the more dramatic by a long finishing straight, 400 metres, where the chasers could be seen closing in on the two leaders, but with the overall classification a huge incentive for the Vendee U rider to give it his all, the two leaders managed to hold on with Cummings winning the event comfortably, recording his first victory of the year and one that he will no doubt be rightly proud of.

A day off racing tomorrow with the next event due to take place on Tuesday when a hillier course will no doubt suit Tom Southam but John wouldn't put it past Steve to put in another great performance with the confidence gained from today�s win. A victory that John feels Steve, a former Junior Road Race champion, has been capable of for the last three years.

BRITISH RESULTS

 1. CUMMINGS Steve       Great Britain 2 h 59'06" 
 2. ZEN Jean             Vend�e U      st 
 3. FERNANDEZ Fabien     Cycle Poitevin 05" 

16. GIBB Tony            Great Britain
58. HOUSE Kristian       Great Britain
70. ANDERSON Russell     Great Britain
73. WILLIAMSON James     CO Chamali�res 
74. SOUTHAM Tom          Great Britain
79. WALLACE Owyn         Great Britain   All st

RIDERS
Bryan Steel
Steve Cummings
Tony Gibb
Kristian House
Russell Anderson
Owyn Wallace
Tom Southam
Tom White
Kieran Page

SUPPORT TEAM
John Herety (Team Manager)
Robyn Taylor (Team Masseur)
Mark Ingham (Team Mechanic)
Rod Ellingworth (Coach)
Gavin King (Masseur)
Nigel Mitchell (Nutrition)

RACE PROGRAM
Feb 20, Givrand-Givrand (VENDENNES SERIES)
Feb 22, La Garnache (VENDENNES SERIES)
Feb 23, St-Jean de Monts (VENDENNES SERIES)
Feb 25, Chantonay (VENDENNES SERIES)
Feb 27, St-Gilles Croix de Vie (VENDENNES SERIES)
March 2, Circuit de la Vall�e de la Loire

� British Cycling 2002/2003