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Team News: Action packed summer continues for Rapha Condor Sharp

With the commencement of the National Circuit Series, and the resumption of the Premier Calendar, it has been a busy two weeks for the Rapha Condor Sharp team.

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Despite the frenetic activity of the Halfords Tour Series being well and truly over, with the commencement of the National Circuit Series, and the resumption of the Premier Calendar, it has been a busy two weeks for the Rapha Condor Sharp team.

While the rest of the Rapha Condor Sharp riders were getting involved in the action at the Leazes Criterium, where Richard Lang scored a popular first UK win, Felix English became the second Rapha Condor Sharp rider to win a national title in 2012, when he took out the Irish National Criterium Championships.

Rapha’s Mike Cuming at the Stockton GP

English made the most of the wet conditions and technical course to attack the race hard from start, and eventually broke clear alone with twenty minutes of the one-hour race to go. English will now wear the distinctive white and green jersey throughout the summer criterium action.

Previous to English’s win in the Irish Championships, the National Circuit Series had got underway in Brighouse, with former series winner Dean Downing once again spearheading the team’s challenge with a fine second place to series rival Raleigh GAC’s Graham Briggs.

It was former Rapha Condor Sharp rider Briggs who would again take the win in the second round of the series, the Claremont Hospital sponsored Stafford Grand Prix, while Downing, caught out by a fast start and treacherously wet roads, missed the break and sprinted home in 7th on the night.

Soaking wet roads were once again a feature at the third round of the series in Stockton, in conditions described by some as the worst they had ever seen for a criterium. The racing once again got underway from the gun, with the riders on the front of the grid trying to take maximum advantage of the difficult conditions straight away.

Downing struggled on the night and instead it was the Aussie duo of Lang and Grenda, as well as Scottish National Road Race Champion, James McCallum who made sure RCS riders packed out the top ten.

In the Premier Calendar road race action, Rapha Condor Sharp played a decisive role in the Beaumont trophy, when, having only placed one rider in the large move that had slipped away from the bunch, under the instructions of team manager John Herety, the team showed impressive discipline to pull back a the 11 man move that had looked for a long time like it would survive to the finish.

The work from the ‘men in black’ proved effective enough to neutralize the break on the last lap of the finish circuits. The race came down to a bunch gallop at the end of the 85-mile race where Tasmanian Ben Grenda sprinted in to a fine 7th place, his second top ten in the series in 2012.

Grenda was again in the action at the Stockton Festival Premier Calendar, where for the second week in a row the race came down to a small bunch finish.
After a break that contained newly crowned Under 23 Road Race Champion Mike Cuming had been reeled in on the final circuit in Stockton on Tees, Grenda, along with Richard Lang, who continues to show signs great form, took 9th and 10th respectively in the penultimate round of the series.

The final round of the 2012 Premier Calendar will be the Wilton Grand Prix on the 12th of August and the team will be looking to profit from some scheduled racing in Belgium throughout July.

 

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