Winter Series Triumph for Jason Streather

14th of February, 2006; British Cycling talk to Winter Series Winner

VC St Raphael rider, Jason Streather will clinch his third Twickenham CC Winter Series title next weekend at Hillingdon's cycle circuit. The series, organised by long time Twickenham CC member Doug Collins for nine years, is growing in popularity as it helps keep riders actively racing during the winter months and Streather has been there from the very beginning.

Travelling from the West country down the M4 to London each weekend, Streather last won the series three years ago when he managed to defend his overall title from the year before. Having ridden the series for almost a decade, Jason says of the organiser Doug Collins, "he's great. He puts all these races on for us and goes out of his way to help us. He's always thinking about us and in the past few weeks has upped the distance to help us when we get to do races like the Perfs."

Asked why he races during the winter, Jason replied, "It's good meeting the lads each week and I seem to go alright during the winter. I go on the club runs and some of them are hard but in all honesty, I'd rather go hard in a race than a club run. I'm not doing a lot of miles for this, just over 100 miles a week".

Talking about holding onto his lead in the series, he explained the way the points are given, has worked in his favour. "I've just been marking the second and third placed riders the last few weeks. I've been lucky that Tony (Gibb) went away to South Africa training but to have a chance, you have to be up there in the top five every week."

Jason's lead in the series was also helped by a few victories. "I had a couple of wins and I hadn't won for a couple of years so that was nice to do."

One of the criticisms, or is it just jealousy speaking, from other riders, was the amount of British Cycling ranking points that riders would rake up during the winter in previous years. With the British Cycling competition review, that has all changed. "I haven't got many of those" he said. "The way it stands, the rider who wins today (the Perfs Pedal), will get almost as many points as I have in the whole series. It's better for sure so I'm not worried about that."

"I'll be happy to be a 1st category rider next year. I'm going to be looking at riding the track and just enjoying my racing. I don't travel to all the road races like I used to."

Jason is also very happy with the VC St Raphael club sponsored by Waite Contracts and Hewitt Cycles who helped him purchase his pride and joy, the Black C50 Colnago. "Mick is good to us. He loves his sport and is like Doug in that way. When we ride the track, we have a good set of lads there and to be honest, I can't see myself leaving this club. I am just happy to be riding with them."

Jason's main goal now though is to cap off the winter series as best he can before stepping up to collect his reward as the overall winner, a healthy cheque which he says is a bonus and will go a long way to paying for all the diesel he's used having to get to the races."

Our congratulations to Jason and the organiser Doug Collins and all the riders in the winter series at Hillingdon.

The Winter Series starts at 1.30pm and is held at the Hillingdon Cycle Circuit in West London. See the Event and Result Finder for details.


PREVIOUS REPORTS

Twickenham CC Winter Series (Feb 11)

Twickenham CC Winter Series (Feb 4 -- Includes Photo Gallery)

Twickenham CC Winter Series (28th Jan)

Twickenham CC Winter Circuit Series