British Cycling

CASTLE COMBE CRITERIUMS - ENDURASPORT REPORT

First win means life’s a beach for Sandy

In near gale force conditions Greg Sandy (seen below in the black and orange kit, following runner-up James Taylor) unleashed an explosive sprint in the closing metres of the Southern Circuit League Round 1 to score his maiden victory for Team Endurasport.com – Principia. It was also a first victory for the team which was officially launched just a month ago.

Battling against ferocious 40 mph winds over an exposed 72 km course at the Wiltshire motor racing circuit of Castle Combe, it was Sandy’s team mate Andrew Parsons who made the early break on lap 2 forcing the pace and allowing Sandy to bide his time out of the wind in the main bunch.

When Parsons and his fellow escapee were finally caught by the field Sandy, along with James Taylor (City of Edinburgh RC), Ben Luckwell (Maestro UK-Fircroft Hotel), Gerry Bowditch (www.bikeshop.com) and Dave Bentley made a jump away and working well together began to build a sizable lead.

As the bunch behind hesitated and the gap grew to a minute then Sandy put the hammer down again dropping Bentley and moving the gap on the main bunch up to 2 minutes.

With no response coming from behind in the appalling conditions it all came down to who was the sprinter with the most left as the leading 4 came into the finishing straight. Bowditch was first to go before former National Madison Champion James Taylor wound up his considerable track-honed sprint. Both, however were denied the victory as Sandy burst from behind Taylor with 20 metres to go and took the win by ¾ of a length in an awesome display of timing.

Andrew Parsons finished in a wonderful 14th having worked so hard to police the bunch for Sandy throughout a race that saw only 19 finish out of 32 starters.

Sandy now leads the Southern Circuit League standings on 10 points from Taylor and Bowditch. The next round takes place at the Mountbatten Centre, Portsmouth UK on 5th April.

March 2003 Racing Results