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Best Foot Forward

Words & Images by Andy Witehouse
December 2009

Andy Whitehouse looks back at the 2009 season and selects some of his favourite images and memories from a busy 12 months in which he followed Cycle Speedway.

Every year around this time I sit down and trawl through my memories of the previous season working for British Cycling. It has been a special year for me mainly because, for the first time, I was asked to cover a full season of cycle speedway, a 'leg' of the sport which I had begun to cover in 2008.

Cycle Speedway is fast, furious and colourful. It's full of spills, crashes and is very emotive: bikes with no brakes or gears, four riders hammering round a shale track, locked together diving into the first bend looking to exit ahead, ready to get the best line into the third bend and out to finish the first lap. Three more laps left to race and all under fifty seconds.

Cycle Speedway is certainly not for the faint-hearted. I have been privileged to meet a good number of people that have been involved with the sport for many years and who are extremely passionate about it and I thank them for allowing me to be part of that passion. It's very addictive folks!

From my home in the West Midlands I've travelled to Edinburgh and back for an hour and half of racing: What a long day that was! I've been to Poole, Norwich, Newport(Wales), Isle of Man, Wednesfield and too many places to mention in between, covered around 17,000 miles, got a speeding ticket and drunk far too many coffees and red bulls for my own good but I don't think I've a single bad day covering a sport which is on the rise and with new projects taking shape for the coming year a sport which will continue growing.

There are so many races I could include here but due to space restrictions and time I have picked a few events/features which to me were special for various reasons. Firstly two people who are on the top of their game, Veteren Individual Champion Steve Harris and Open Individual Champion Lee Aris. Both riders on their day are nigh on impossible to beat, ever competitve and yet gracious in defeat. Both are multi national champions indoor and out and always supportive of their team mates.

The British Team Finals between Horspath Hammers and Wednesfield Aces held at East Newport on September 13th saw - some say - one of the best meetings ever seen on the shale. Both Harris and Aris were to play important roles in the final. The favorites and reigning champions Wednesfield met old adversaries Poole in the first semi final, a semi which probably should have been the final. The Aces took the win from Poole and had to wait for the outcome of the second semi which saw the Hammers beat Stoke. We then had a final which had everything: the win was in the bag for Wednesfield until heat fifteen which saw both Sam Smith and Lee Aris excluded which allowed Horspath to bring the deficit down to one point and took the meeting to the last heat which saw Steve Harris first to cross the line and bring the points level and take the match to a three heat decider which Horspath Hammers took, to leave the scores 102 points to 100.

Lee Aris enjoys a laundry moment

Steve Harris leaves a trail of destruction behind him

Another interesting day was The Open Club Championships held at Norwich's Eaton Park track. Apart from the racing, the journey down there was a test in itself for myself, the Wednesfield team and Mark Winwood from the Birmingham Monarchs. A freak accident on the A14 with a horse and a horse box saw a two hour delay, with the Police putting up a road block until the accident was cleared. This meant frantic phone calls to Norwich and a request to delay the start by two hours. Another accident in Thetford held me up further and poor Mark Winwood arrived with tales that he had had a prang in his car at another incident but the sun shone as it has for most of my season and some fine racing from all the teams involved saw Birmingham Monarchs beat local rivals Wednesfield by a single point. The late start saw the meeting carry on well into the night and a three hour drive home meant the day's travelling was almost nine and a half hours.





The future of any sport lies firmly on the broad shoulders of the young guys (and girls) and cycle speedway certainly has too many future stars to mention here but I'll name a few that I've watched during the 2009 season: everyone has their own choices but these are mine so we can argue that over the safety fence.

Firstly Birmingham Monarch's Paul Heard, 2009 British Under 19 champion which he won at the ripe old age of sixteen and not content with just the one title Paul added British Club Championship, British U19 Team Championship and, to round the season off nicely, The British Indoor Junior Team title.

Ben Mould is also another fine rider to watch out for over the coming years. While riding the 2009 season for Poole, Ben took the British U16 Championship at Leicester. Again, like Heard, the young Welsh rider was not content to rest on his laurels and he added the Welsh U16 championship and, after a hard fought tussle with Mark Carmichael, took the runner up position in the Welsh Open Championship. To be successful across a whole season is never an easy task and Ben rode consistently during the 2009 season to take the British Youth Junior League Under 16 title. Ben will be riding with Birmingham Monarchs for 2010 season.

Although still a predominantly male sport, cycle speedway has a growing number of female riders who, for the first time in 2010, have the opportunity to compete in their own league which will be supported by Ian Brown of Wosskow Brown Solicitors and Ivan Pike of Ipswich CSC. One young rider to keep an eye on for the coming years is Michelle Whitehead of Leicester whose 2009 season was cut short at the British Women's Championships after an horrendous crash which saw the young rider fall and break her arm in three places

Paul Heard, 2009 British Under 19 champion

Ben Mould, National U16 Championship

Michelle Whitehead of Leicester

I had to include a few crash pictures in this report and although they look rather nasty, most of the time the riders dust themselves down and get back on their bikes to carry on with the afternoon's racing. To be honest the most frequent question I get asked after the racing is..."Did you get my crash, lets have a look?" So this selection is for the bruises and gravel rash the riders seem to enjoy getting and the spectators love watching!

Away from cycle speedway, I have had the opportunity to cover other sides of cycle sport and I was privileged to be able to cover the National Road Race Championships held at Abergavenny on a hot June weekend. I enjoyed the best seat in the house, hanging off the back of a motorbike with my cameras. It's the coolest job in the World I reckon! Well when the sun shines anyway - it's not much fun in the driving rain.

Great racing, thousands watching roadside and an opportunity to see the country's top riders, including some we would see a few weeks later fighting it out in Le Tour. I've also included a picture of Johnny Bellis who had a life threatening crash in Italy while out riding a moped. Thankfully he's is making good progress and is on the road to recovery in a London hospital.

Jonny Bellis - recovering now after his terrible accident

Mark Cavendish (left) and Roger Hammond, just two of the stars on show at the national championships in June

So in a nutshell, that was my year with British Cycling. I hope you've enjoyed the pictures I've managed to submit during the year. We set out at the start of the season to help make cycle speedway cooler and more attractive and to encourage more folks to have a go. Hopefully we've made a small contribution towards this end - 2010 will see lots more coverage of races, more interviews and more bikes on the shale. It's a great sport you should have a go, the clubs would love to see you!