Posted on: 23rd July 2012
Article: Alan Denman, Regional development Officer
Five Juniors, Peter Hale, Dale McCallum, Ross Green, Ryan Fenwick and Mark Stewart along with Craig Wallace riding for his club team (Granite City RT) had a successful days racing at Sundays Bath Road Clubs ETR Junior road race. This was the latest round of the British juniors road race series, which is competed by the countries top riders.
The Boys set off!
Making the trip from Scotland is always a bit of an epic just due to the extra distance the riders have to travel. Setting off from Scottish Cycling’s offices in Edinburgh late Friday afternoon and travelling half way lightens the effects of the long journey slightly.
For this trip the squad were looked after by Alan Denman and the vastly experienced Stan Stewart from the Discovery Junior club.
After completing the second half of the trip on Saturday morning, the riders completed a reccy of the course with a couple of laps, paying particular attention to the lead into the finish and the main climb.
On the morning of the race, the riders were all feeling pretty good and team captain on the road Dale McCallum did an excellent job keeping his riders focused and organized before the action started. Once on the road, Dale ensured that the team plans were put into action making sure that every move that went up the road either had a Scotland riders in it or was chased back. Eventually the race winning move was established with two laps to go.
Race report from British Cycing website:
"The early stages of a fast paced race - which saw the riders complete the rolling 20km course at 30 minutes a lap – were full of action with several failed attempts to get away – including a long solo effort from Tao Geoghegan Hart – but every attempt failed as the race regrouped. The only real change was at the back as the pace saw a constant stream of riders dropped from the main group.
With two to go Jacob Ragan of Maxgear Racing and Adam Lewis of Wolverhampton Wheelers finally made a move that looked like it might stick – coming over the finishing climb with two laps to go 25 seconds ahead of the chasing bunch.
By the bell, the leading group was up to seven riders and contained most of the usual suspects – Lewis had faded but Ragan was still there and now had team mate Hugh Carthy for company, as well as Geoghegan Hart, Peters, Will Stephenson of Primera Racing, Joe Kirkham of Hargroves and Peter Hale of Scotland.
It was a strong group and had stretched the lead out to 42 seconds but with National Champion Sam Lowe of Hargreaves Cycles chasing hard and the now somewhat depleted bunch just 7 seconds further back it wasn’t inevitable that they would stay away.
Stay away they did, though – until Geoghegan Hart and Carthy made their move on the run-in. As they turned on to the final climb, it was the CC Hackney rider who sailed up the hill to take the win by a sizeable margin – but talking to British Cycling after the race, it was clear that it was a far from comfortable win."
The teams excellent performance was rewarded not only with a fine 5th place for Peter Hale, but also by winning the Team classification, no easy feat with top teams Maxgear, Sportscover and Hargroves among others fielding top teams.
Full report of the event along with photos can be found at www.britishcycling.org.uk
