2007 British Cycling Cyclo-Cross Championships

 

Day 2, January 7, Southampton Sports Centre

Junior Men's Championship

Home Page Cyclo-Cross Nationals

 

A delighted Alex Paton wins the junior title the year after winning the Youth title in the snow at Sutton Park.

 

Picking up where he left off last year, Alex Paton dominated the Junior race, leading from the start and opening a gap on his closest chasers. From a small group that formed behind Alex, Scott Thwaites broke clear and kept Alex honest for the whole race, keeping the leader in sight but not quite managing to close the gap. Behind Thwaites, it had been a tussle between last years Junior champion David Fletcher and a rider who was 5th last year, Jonathon McEvoy. It was the Kinesis rider McEvoy who had the most left at the end though, clinching the final medal.

Alex Paton: "It was far from easy but my race went well. Perfect, just what I wanted. I was aware of where Scott was and on different parts of the course would look back to see what the gap was. I was changing my bike once each lap and could have done with another change on the laps lap but the freehub had gone wrong on my spare bike so I had to carry on."

Scott Thwaites: "Alex is a strong rider in the mud and won the Bradford trophy race so I knew he would be at the front today. He always goes off fast and got a good gap. I managed to get ahead of David and Jonny and kept pushing. I gave it all I had and I'm pleased with that. My race went pretty smoothly overall. I didn't get too good a start but I'm not a fast starter. I knew I'd have to pace myself so I set a good tempo and took it easy on the corners because I knew a crash would cost quite a lot of time, so I'm pleased I had strong legs but not quite strong enough".

Jonathon McEvoy: "I had a good battle with David for the bronze medal. The legs were pretty bad at the beginning and the longer the race went on, the more I was able to get into it but it was too late to catch Alex or Scott."

Asked if he had any other problems, he said "on the first lap through the wooded section I came off and lost one or two places but my legs were so bad at the beginning I couldn't get back on terms with the leaders. It was just one of those days and I'm really disappointed with my race really."

 

PHOTOS

Start of the Youth event.

 

Right from the start, Paton was at the head of the race and went on to dominate it pushed only by Scott Thwaites half a minute back for most of the race.

 

Scott Thwaites, David Fletcher and Jonathon McEvoy were the riders who battled for the remaining two medals behind Paton.

 

Scott Thwaites got close to catching Paton at one stage but was unable to close the gap and had to settle for second.

 

It was a great performance from the young London rider who gave his rivals no chance of taking the title away from him.

 

Jonathon McEvoy, 3rd but dissapointed at having 'no legs' on the day and unable to challenge for the title.

 

David Fletcher was locked on a race long battle with McEvoy but by the finish the race favourite had to settle for fourth place. 

 

Podium, Scott Thwaites, Alex Paton and Jonathon McEvoy. 

RESULT

1. Alex Paton, VC Deal/Activ/Hammond/Rowland, 0, 0
2. Scott Thwaites, Crosstrax, 0, 25
3. Jonathan McEvoy, Kinesis UK, 0, 57
4. David Fletcher, Sherwood Pines/Newark Castle CC, 1, 28
5. Thomas Butt, DH Cyclesport, 2, 24
6. Sam Webster, Planet X /Cycling Plus, 2, 53
7. Shaun Hurrell, Glendene CC/Bike Trax, 3, 7
8. Sebastian Batchelor, York Cycleworks, 3, 22
9. Guy Wilkins, Bikinmotion, 5, 7
10. Andrew Williams, Cwmcarn Paragon RC, 5, 19
11. Gareth James, Abergavewnny RC/Govilon/Bikebase, 5, 21
12. Sion O'Boyle, Gateway RT, 6, 38
13. Tom Payton, Stourbridge CC, 7, 36
14. Thomas Hibberd, Solihull CC, 9, 17
15. Lawrence Frost, Ashfield RC, 9, 24
16. Tim Rowson, Sheffield Phoenix CC, 13, 5
17. Alex Bellinger, Wigmore CC, at, 1 lap
18. Jake Francis, Individual Member, at, 1 lap
19. Alex Jones, Wolverhampton Whs CC/Williams, at, 1 lap