Location: Corunna Barracks, Ludgershall, Wiltshire
Event: 2 March 2013
On a very cold but dry Ludgershall morning Martin Smith (AW Cycles) riding a brand new bike only collected yesterday popped out of a five man group to win by half a bike length.
Having been the most workmen like throughout the race it was fitting Martin took the spoils on the line.
While throughout the race several small groups of riders tried to ease away Martin was instrumental at pulling each move back until the race had ten minutes left when a group of five got a small gap and managed to maintain it.
The group consisted of Martin Smith, Robert Ward (ASFRA RT), Gregg Shrosbree (VC Meudon), Duncan Lancashire (Andover Wheelers) and Tavis Walker (Dream CC).
So with the 45mins up the five leaders had a little over 10secs lead and between them held it to the finish.
The cold morning got underway with two separate races for the 4th cat riders split between odds and evens numbers. The odd numbers got us underway and although there wasn’t too much in the way of breaks there was some pretty good riding.
This race lasted for 30 minutes plus three laps and we had to wait until the three laps to see the first meaningful attack when Bob Richardson (unattached) managed to get a handful of seconds lead.
At the bell it was Kurtis Rowe (Yeovil CC) now just of the front but the speed of the bunch meant that it was always going to come to the sprint finish.
The evens race saw Jon Gates (RAF CA) do most of the work throughout the race and he was rewarded with a third place on the line.
The third cat race saw many riders trying to get away but the pace was very fast and as soon as each attack formed someone pulled it back.
The group were content to sit up with three laps to go and the race speed dropped. So at the bell the bunch was all together and the race came down to a big bunch sprint won by Joe Barry (Performance Cycles).
Provisional Results:
E123:
1st Martin Smith AW Cycles 45mins +3laps
2nd Robert Ward ASFRA RT @ st
3rd Gregg Shrosbree VC Meudon @ st
4th Cat (odd nos):
1st Lee King Rides on Air 30min +3laps
2nd Barnaby Cox Gillingham and District Wheelers @ st
3rd Roger Theron Army CU @ st
4th Cat (even nos):
1st Tristan Grigalis SURC 3O mins+3laps
2nd Nick Skardon VC Walcot @ st
3rd Jon Gates RAF @ st
3rd Cat:
1st Joe Barry Performance Cycles 35min +3laps
2nd Gregg Shrosbree VC Meudon @ st
3rd Kim Little Gillingham and District Wheelers @ st
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.
