KRISTAIN HOUSE IS 5TH PREMIER CALENDAR INTERNAtIONAL

The Great Britain team were in action today in the Premier Calendar event on the Isle of Man. Shortly after it finished, while he waited with time on his hands for a ferry that was already two hours late, I spoke to the Great Britain team manager, Rod Ellingworth, about how the Great Britain riders fared in the international race. Riding for GB was Kristian House and three Under 23 riders, Owen Wallace, Kierin Page, Russell Anderson.

In summing up the race overall, Rod said it went pretty well. The race strategy prior to the start was that the under 23 riders, who have a more important race on Sunday with the Espoirs National Road Race championship, would support Kristain House who was coming into a good vein of form after a month of training in Dover following a heavy training crash on the track. So not only did Kristain have the legs, he also had the freedom to give it everything without having to worry about other up coming events.

From where the manager sat, it certainly seemed that Kristain was a popular rider with locals and having done well here before, it was settled then that the other riders in the GB team would keep him out of the wind for as long as it took before a selection was made at which time, Kristain would start to ride. Talking first about the riders supporting Kristain, Rod explained that when some dangerous moves went on the second lap the GB boys were equal to the task, bringing them back and keeping the race together until the bottom of the mountain on the 2nd lap.

It was at this point that Kieran Page, one of the favourites for the Under 23 Championship on Sunday in Buckinghamshire, set tempo on the front of the group for as long as he could before the race split and 20 to 25 riders were leading the race including Kristain. With him were most of the favourites, making it a very handy select group and one that looked certain to stay away. Kristain however was out numbered with four Irish riders, three Italians, three or four Life Repair riders among the 20 or so in the group. All this meant that on the last lap, there was a lot of action and after only 5 or 6 miles into the final lap, the main move went.

According to Rod, it was all started by a rider coming into form, Anthony Malarczyk riding for Wales along with Andy Collis (Team Lichfield), John Charlesworth (South Yorkshire Police) and Kevin Dawson (Life Repair). Seeing the danger, Mark Lovatt and David McCann, sparing partners from many a Premier Calendar race including this years Five Valleys, got across, a move that Kristain House was later kicking himself for having missed.

All the main teams were now represented in the front group except for the Italians and of the three, only two were riding, so Kristain new then that the only way he was to have any chance, was to attack which he did on one of the climbs at the back of the course. His attack did split the chase group and he managed to get away with a small group chasing a front group, that on the main climb started to split. Knowing the big climb would be his best chance of crossing to the leaders, Kristain attacked after only 5 or 600 metres and soon started to catch Malarczyk, Dawson, Charlesworth and Collis leaving three riders out front.

Of the leaders, the French rider is said to have been away on his own before being pulled back and then David McCann attacked and with the race win looking certain, he had a serious mechanical problem causing him to fall heavily. By the time he managed to get back up and going again, Lovatt had gone on his own chased by the Frenchman and then McCann. Behind, another Frenchman had attacked Kristain�s group and was able to keep his advantage all the way to the line followed by House who in turn beat the then Premier Calendar leader John Tanner for fifth place.

Afterwards, Kristain was very disappointed knowing that with a lap to go he had had good legs and was at that point, confident of perhaps going all the way and winning the event. Normally, Kristain rides a very aggressive race but in this one, he held back until the main move went and everything was going to plan until the break split and Kristain was caught in the wrong half. In the end, he did what he could to try and make up for missing the move but for now, has to look towards his next goal which will be the National Track Championships and the Olympic Qualifiers.