Location: Old, Northamptonshire
Event: 20 April 2013
Report: Snowdon Sports
Photo: Karen Lewis
Scratchman Rob Fletcher proved fastest in a 40-up bunch sprint to give host club Arbis-Colbert Cycles RT victory in the penultimate round of the Northants CRA Late Spring Series over three laps of the 9.4-mile Old circuit.
A four-strong scratch group was asked to give 7-30 to the front of the race and they took the best part of a lap to close a gap of a minute to the group immediately in front of them.
Once there, the extra numbers proved invaluable and the gaps reduced steadily until the race came together with half a lap to go – junior Keira McVitty (Team Zenith-Buzzcycles) the last to be swept up.
Hans van Nierop (Welland Valley CC) launched a brave attack on the long airfield straight towards Lamport, holding off the charging bunch for a mile, but he was reeled back in to leave 42-year-old Fletcher, from Leighton Buzzard, to secure a maiden road race victory on the long uphill drag to the finish ahead of Steve Wood (Peterborough CC) and his own team-mate, Stephen Colbert.
Amelia Cambridge (VC Rutland) battled her way through the bunch to take tenth place as first woman.
Result:
1 Rob Fletcher (Arbis-Colbert Cycles RT)
2 Steve Wood (Peterborough CC)
3 Stephen Colbert (Arbis-Colbert Cycles RT)
4 James Moore (Welland Valley CC)
5 Marcus Partridge (VC Rutland)
6 Chris Palfreeman (45 Road Club)
7 Michael Cowland (St Ives CC)
8 John Ellis (Welland Valley CC)
9 Joel Lewis (Arbis-Colbert Cycles RT)
10 Amelia Cambridge (VC Rutland)
Please credit www.britishcycling.org.uk and link back if you use any of our race results.
British Cycling would like to thank the organising team, officials and everyone else who helped promote this event. Our sport could not exist without the hundreds of people, many of them unpaid volunteers, who put in many hours of hard work running events, activities and clubs.
