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Festival Of Cycling In Glorious Sunshine

South West Cyclo-Cross Round 1
Sunday 12 September 2010, Plympton Farm
Report: Roy Wyle Smith

Mark Cotton (1st Sen) and Steve Davies (1st Vet) negotiate one of the event's scaffold bridges

The South Hams Festival of Cycling, South West Cyclo-Cross League Round 1, was blessed with beautiful sunshine at Michelle Meyer's Plympton Farm, Malborough. 88 competitors made the journey from around the South West to race over David Hamilton's undulating farmland circuit. Competitors agreed that the event, the fourth edition, was one of the best they had encountered, with David's famous bridges linking otherwise inaccessible sections of the land, making for a wonderful spectacle and great racing. Isabel Hamilton once again proved that she is the queen of catering, providing tea, coffee, squash and a fine array of cakes to competitors and spectators alike.

The weekend started on Saturday afternoon with the course opened to all for a fun ride or pre race practice. Several families made the effort to come and ride round the course, getting a feel for a cyclo-cross circuit. Later in the day a dozen riders who would be racing on Sunday came to familiarise themselves with the terrain. One such rider was Vin Cox, just returned from his epic round the world cycling trip and the newly crowned Guinness World Record holder in 163 days 15hrs and 58 mins.

Riders later enjoyed a BBQ hosted by event organiser David Hamilton, who turned his hand to cooking burgers and sausages. A convivial evening was had by all, adding to the atmosphere of the whole weekend and talking over the display of bikes from Cicli-di-Thomsoni and Custom Carbon Bikes several of which would be in action in the thick of the racing the next day.

Steve Davies taking victory

Roy Wyle Smith (2nd Senior) and Tim Fey (2nd Vet)

Under 12's racing gets under way

Sunday's proceedings opened with a strong field of 19 riders in the Under 12's. Jack Hawtin of MDCC kept up his winning ways of last year and romped home to victory.

Next up, 13 Youth riders tackled the 1km course. A stronger entry than in previous years saw a number of last seasons Under 12's stepping up a category. The racing was close but the Kelly brothers Joel and Will (Mid Devon CC) were split by Laura Clode (Revo Racing) to fill the top 3 places in a well contested race.

The whole course was then opened up for practice before the main race at 12.30. 56 riders faced the starter and at the gun the familiar cavalry charge to ensure good position ensued with visiting rider Mark Cotton (Bycka Sport) and Veteran Steve Davies (MI Racing) leading the way as the field started to string out over the first lap. These two riders then opened up a small gap over teammates Roy Wyle Smith and Tim Fey (eliteVelo) who worked well together giving chase. Steve Davies then kicked and distanced Mark Cotton on the 3rd lap and kept his lead to take a great opening win of the season. First Cycle Sport South Hams rider home was Andrew Thompson finishing 6th veteran and top ten overall. First Junior home was Harry Smith (Shred Racing) who finished a respectable 17th overall. Gail Aspden (Squaddra Donne) took the ladies win from Liz Tier.

This was a great season opener to the South West Cyclo-Cross League 2010/11 season. Sadly, after four years, this was the last event David Hamilton will be promoting as he has decided to step aside as an organiser. Hopefully someone will take up the reins and run an event in the South Hams next year. Roy Wyle Smith thanked David and his team of helpers for all their efforts over the years in making the event such a success.

Results

Senior, Junior, Vets and Women
1 Steve Davies MI Racing 54mins ( 1st Vet )
2 Mark Cotton Bycka Sport ( 1st Sen )
3 Roy Wyle Smith eliteVELO ( 2nd Sen )
4 Tim Fey eliteVELO ( 2nd Vet )
5 Vin Cox Empella cyclo-cross.com ( 3rd Sen )
6 Tim Carpenter Empella cyclo-cross.com ( 3rd Vet )
7 Luke Eggar Southfork Racing ( 4th Sen )
8 Pete Dawe Southfork Racing ( 4th Vet )
9 Gary Andrews Certini ( 5th Vet )
10 Andrew Thomson CSSH ( 6th Vet )
11 Matt Loake Southfork Racing ( 5th Sen )
12 John Peters CSSH at 1 lap ( 6th Sen )
13 Steve Birchill Unattached ( 7th Sen )
14 Matt Richardson Shred Racing ( 8th Sen )
15 Alan Sanders CSSH ( 9th Sen )
16 J Bovey MDCC ( 10th Sen )
17 Harry Smith Shred Racing ( 1st Jun )
18 Nick Butler Southfork Racing ( 7th Vet )
19 Alan Drury MDCC ( 11th Sen )
20 Martin Crocker Southfork Racing ( 12th Sen )
21 Adrian Clode Revo Racing ( 8th Vet )
22 Sam Barley Unattached ( 13th Sen )
23 Jay Worbey Unattached ( 14th Sen )
24 Richard Taylor Exeter Wheelers ( 9th Vet )
25 Peter Robinson SRC Bicyclechain ( 15th Sen )
26 Garry Pike Shred Racing ( 10th Vet )
27 Chris Mahn eliteVELO ( 16th Sen )
28 Mark Davies Revo Racing ( 17th Sen )
29 Robin Delve MDCC ( 11th Vet )
30 Mike Mulroy PVC Velocake ( 18th Sen )
31 Mark Moran Unattached ( 12th Vet )
32 Don Rigby CSSH ( 19th Sen )
33 Mark Deakin SRC Bicyclechain ( 13th Vet )
34 Steve Whitehouse Unattached ( 14th Vet )
35 Tony Chope CSSH at 2 laps ( 20th Sen )
36 Mark Rockett Unattached ( 15th Vet )
37 Lester Young Empella cyclo-cross.com ( 16th Vet )
38 Chris Seavell Unattached ( 17th Vet )
39 Brian Bullen Yogi ( 18th Vet )
40 Aiden Bradley Unattached ( 21st Sen )
41 Michael Alexander Royal Navy ( 19th Vet )
42 Nick Hawtin MDCC ( 20th Vet )
43 Nigel Worsey Unattached ( 21st Vet )
44 Ben Clarke Unattached ( 22nd Sen )
45 Adam Fursdon MDCC ( 2nd Jun )
46 Steve Worbey Unattached ( 22nd Vet )
47 Sean Connock Southfork Racing at 3 laps ( 23rd Vet )
48 M Coleman Unattached ( 24th Vet )
49 Richard Clarke MDCC ( 25th Vet )
50 Gail Aspden Squadra Donne ( 1st Lady )
51 Sam Hann Tiverton BMX ( 3rd Jun )
52 Liz Tier MI Racing ( 2nd Lady )
53 Miles Earl YOGI DNF ( Sen )
54 Luke Evershed DNF ( Jun )
55 Andrew Welling DNF ( Vet )
56 Stuart Pickering DNF ( Vet )

Youth
1 Joel Kelly Mid Devon CC ( U16 )
2 Laura Clode Revo Racing ( U16 Female )
3 Will Kelly Mid Devon CC ( U14 )
4 Charlie Meredith Unattached ( U14 )
5 Harry Loader MDCC ( U16 )
6 Charles Hough The Bike Cellar ( U14 )
7 Daniel Welling Unattached ( U14 )
8 Karla Hodson Revo Racing ( U14 Female )
9 Harry Clarke MDCC ( U14 )
10 Lucy Hawtin Mid Devon CC ( U14 Female )
11 Nathaniel Olson One and All ( U14 )
12 Dan Smith DNF
13 Rowan Sutton DNF

Under 12's
1 Harry Birchill EMBC ( U10 )
2 Jack Hawtin Mid Devon CC ( U12 )
3 Harry Meredith ( U12 )
4 Freddy Birchill EMBC ( U8 )
5 Sam Pearson Southfork Racing ( U10 )
6 Robert Waddy ( U12 )
7 Nick Robinson Kelly College ( U10 )
8 Charlotte Budgen ( U10 Female )
9 Rosie Andrews Certini ( U8 Female )
10 Joshua Budgen ( U12 )
11 Oscar Meredith ( U10 )
12 Jack Angel ( U8 )
13 Daniel Thomson ( U10 )
14 Kora Olson Penzance Wheelers ( U10 Female )
15 Henry Howells CSSH ( U8 )
16 Grace Whitehouse ( U8 Female )
17 Hayleigh Wyle Smith eliteVELO ( U8 Female )
18 Albert Rigby ( U8 )