The forecast rain didn’t quite materialise – although it could be seen coming down in sheets to the East and West of the track – but the Arctic wind did and the sunshine that lit the track in the opening half hour couldn’t disguise a bitterly cold evening.
The opening the trackcycling 10 Lap Scratch saw AW Cycles’ Matt Gittings – home for the summer from Indianapolis and still in his Marian University kit – ride away from the small Senior A field to take a comfortable win from Neil Rutter of Cotswold Veldrijden and Nick Abraham. In the Senior Bs it was Hugh Knudsen who took the honours, ahead of new AW Cycles recruit Dan Lansley and Team Terminator’s Paul Davidoff.
Attention then turned to the finals of the Central Division/Track League Individual Pursuit Championship. In the Men’s event Nick English of AW Cycles steadily eased away from Newbury RC’s Ian Greenstreet to win by 11 seconds with a time of 5:17.79. Tamina Olver of Team CTC took the Ladies title by half a minute from Sarah Tombs with a 3:12.39.
Gittings followed up his win in the opening race with another in the Devil, just edging out Withers on the line – before wrapping up his evening’s work with a third victory in the Sprint ahead of Rutter and Withers once again. Tom Sefton of Palmer Park Velo took the Senior B Devil from Lansley and Josh Mitchell of Bicester Millennium. Mitchell – who lost out to Sefton by the narrowest of margins in the last Senior B Sprint – had his revenge this time – reversing the result and popping a wheelie over the line to celebrate. Pat Tynan of Reading CC took third place.
But it was Sefton back on top in the AW Cycles 20k – the youngster was the only B rider who was able to stay with the five A riders in the lead group and took the win from Mark Shepherd of Banjo Cycles and 10 Lap Scratch winner Knudsen. The lead group tore up the race from the mid-way point with IP winner English and Max Brown of Zappi’s instrumental in driving the pace but once again it was Nick Abraham who took the final sprint from Rutter and English.
Central Division/Track League Individual Pursuit Finals
Men
1 Nick ENGLISH AW Cycles 5:17.79
2 Ian GREENSTREET Newbury RC 5:28.28
Ladies
1 Tamina OLIVER Team CTC 3:12.39
2 Sarah TOMBS 3:41.45
Senior A
trackcycling 10 Lap Scratch
1 Matt GITTINGS Marian University
2 Neil RUTTER Cotswold Veldrijden
3 George WITHERS AW Cycles
Devil
1 Matt GITTINGS Marian University
2 George WITHERS AW Cycles
3 Nick ABRAHAM BC Private Member
Sprint
1 Matt GITTINGS Marian University
2 Neil RUTTER Cotswold Veldrijden
3 George WITHERS AW Cycles
AW Cycles 20k Endurance
1 Nick ABRAHAM BC Private Member
2 Neil RUTTER Cotswold Veldrijden
3 Nick ENGLISH AW Cycles
Senior B
trackcycling 10 Lap Scratch
1 Hugh KNUDSEN BC Private Member
2 Paul DAVIDOFF Team Terminator
3 Daniel LANSLEY AW Cycles
Devil
1 Tom SEFTON Palmer Park Velo
2 Daniel LANSLEY AW Cycles
3 Joshua MITCHELL Bicester Millennium
Sprint
1 Joshua MITCHELL Bicester Millennium
2 Tom SEFTON Palmer Park Velo
2 Pat TYNAN Reading CC
AW Cycles 20k Endurance
1 Tom SEFTON Palmer Park Velo
2 Mark SHEPHERD Banjo Cycles
3 Hugh KNUDSEN BC Private Member
Under 16
AW Cycles 20k Endurance
1 Dylan THOMAS Palmer Park Velo
