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Guildford Town Centre Races 2010

Story posted July 5, 2010; Event: Wednesday 7th July 2010 | From Matt Legge | Website

One of the highlights of the sporting calendar in Guildford is poised to be bigger, better and faster than ever before this year. For one night only, the High Street, North Street and Market Street are converted into a racing circuit with spectators lining it to watch the thrills – and occasional spills – of many of the country’s best.

An additional attraction for this years event is the Cycleworks MTB Jump Display where Cycleworks MTB expert Mike Smith and his team will perform Dirt-Jump tricks over the cobbles in a number of shows across the night. Get there early to be in prime position – they will be just below the Market Street junction in the High Street which is just outside the route of the Town Centre Road Races.

Top racing action promised….
Following the success of the event in recent years, the entries for the three races that take place on the night have been flooding in so much so that the two adult category races are full and the Youth races (under 16) only have a few spaces left. Such entry levels were a complete surprise to organizer Matt Legge who explained “this year we used an online entry system and with the fact that we have been trying hard to make the races bigger and better each year,  we are now at a point where it is a major event on the cycling calendar in the South of England”.

The top names for the main race of the night have been racing in many of the top national criterium races of late including the televised Tour Series event that took place in Woking recently. The teams taking part in that series were amongst the top domestic squads and for Guildford, we have representation from Sigma Sport Specialized (Wouter Sybrandy), Jamie Newall (Team Corley Cycles) and Kuota-Road.cc (who have a big turnout for the race including Jeft De Bruin who won the Sprints competition at Woking).

Regular entrant Jody Crawforth is back with his Hargroves Cycles team mate Jonathan Dibben who is currently the country's top ranked Youth rider. Last years support race winner Hugo Humphreys starts the main event this year and will be hoping for a good showing too. Finally there are local teams Felt-Colbornes RT, VC Meudon and WyndyMilla/Maxifuel who will all be wanting to put in good performances in front of the Guildford crowds.

There is a strong presence from promoting club Charlotteville CC in the supporting race with last years 4th place rider Jon Lewis hoping to move up to the podium this year. Sam Sturgeon (Team Terminator) who came second last year and won the previous year, is back again but will have a tough time to put in the same sort of result this year. 

Many of the riders for this event come from local clubs who put in their regular racing at the Eelmoor circuit near Aldershot and the line up includes winners of four rounds of that series so far this year and would be considered to be the ones going for victory on Wednesday: Adrian Goatley (unattached), Rob McCarthy (VC Meudon) and Karl Norfolk and Nick Onslow (both Pedalon.co.uk)

The main event of the evening will be the Guildford Criteriums for Elite, 1st and 2nd category riders and starts at 8pm. A programme of supporting events will also be offered; the Churchouse Criteriums featuring Juniors & 3rd category riders will start the proceedings at 7pm.  Then, at 7.30pm it’s the turn of the youngsters, with the Cycleworks Criterium for Youth riders.

Order of Events

19:00 - The Churchouse Criterium (3/Jun) 20mins plus 10 laps
19:30 - The Cycleworks Criterium (YA/YB/YC/YD) 15mins plus 5 laps
20:00 - The Guildford Criterium (E/1/2) 50mins plus 10 laps

Related Link
Start list for Guildford (PDF)

Town Centre Racing in July!