East Midlands International CiCLE Classic

Event: April 26, 2009 | Oakham - Rutland Water - Melton

Report and Photos: Larry Hickmott & Sarah Brooke

Our thanks to Graham Harper for helping to make possible the photos below

In what Ian described afterwards as his biggest win to-date, the Halfords Bikehut rider wins the 2009 East Midlands CiCle Classic. He went into the race confident and came out of it brimming with excitement at having at last won this unique event.

 

PHOTOS

We have six photo albums for the race from Larry Hickmott (galleries 1 to 3), Sarah Brooke (galleries 4 & 5) and another from Dave O'Nyons (Gallery 6). Links to these galleries are on the top of the page. You also view a video on YouTube by Paul Rowlands (Leadout). Click here to view the video.  The East Midlands CiCLE Classic will also be broadcast on British Eurosport 1 on 3 May at 7.30pm and repeated at 7pm on 7th of May.

 

REPORT

The East Midlands CiCle Classic may have only been on the racing calendar for a few years now but already it is an event that attracts riders from around Britain and beyond. It has also become a highly prized one to win if what Ian Wilkinson said me (click here for pre-race  interview) on the eve of the event.

At the event race headquarters on Sunday morning, almost 200 riders assembled to take part in this unique race and with such a big field of Elite riders, picking a winner was going to be difficult as the foreign teams are always a big unknown. At 10.15, the signing on in the town centre of Oakham started with Hugh Porter the MC keeping the growing crowd informed of what was happening.

The start of this years CiCle Classic.

Team by team, the riders signed on and towards the end, there was a presentation of a ceremonial ‘cleat’ to former Paris-Roubaix winner Magnus Backstedt who was having a  terrible morning with a broken down vehicle just one of the things going wrong for him. Magnus though was one of the riders who were waved away at 11am to the applause of a big crowd and as soon as the race hit the open roads, and the flag was dropped for action to commence, George Richardson (Pendragon-Kalas) was off the front and whipping up the pace of the race.