Report: Ride 24/7 Cricklade Kermesse

Sunday 2nd September: Rupert Denny (GWR Team) was the winner of today’s Kermesse held in Cricklade in North Wiltshire.

From Graham Robins (http://www.grahamrobins.net/) A very strong show from his GWR team mates throughout the race saw Rupert launched away with just over a lap to go.

The town centre race was very well supported in the busy little town seeing a healthy crowd coming out to cheer on the race on the short three mile a lap circuit with its finish in the high street after 50 miles of racing. Local cycle shop and team Ride 24/7 had the full support of the local council allowing the race to start and finish in the high street.

The race was flagged away by the Mayor David Tetlow and the bunch rolled through town and towards the race circuit proper. Once clear of the town the race turned right onto the course for the first of 15 laps with prizes for the king of the mountain at the top of Common Hill on laps 2,4,6 and 8. On the last lap the bell was taken at the top of the climb but as the race headed towards Cricklade it was diverted up the high street and on towards the finish line.

The race saw loads of small attacks with different riders coming to the front but each time the attentive bunch pulled it back together time after time. It wasn’t until half distance did any attack start to stick. The pace was very high and with all the attacks a few riders were getting tired on each pass over Common Hill.

The first attack came from Paul Merryweather (Bristol RC), along with Marcus Boneham (Onitsports) and Jess Wieckowski (GWR Team) they manage to ease away by 20secs. These three riders were joined by Rupert and John Russell (Strada Cycles), and this group soon started to work well together and soon they had a lead of 30 secs.

However this was pulled back and it was the turn of GWR rider Nick Tilling to take up the race and soon he had built himself a lead of 30secs over a group of four riders who in turn had the bunch now back at 50secs. Nick managed to stay away for four laps on his own before being caught by the bunch which had now all come back together at the bottom of the climb.

At the bottom of the climb with as lap to go Rupert pulled away from the bunch and he pulled Thomas Hayward (Andover Wheelers) with him. Once these two riders crossed the line at the top of the hill they pulled away from the bunch. These two riders managed to pull clear of the chasing bunch and they arrived at the bottom of the high street well clear. Once they started to climb up the high street Rupert just rode away from Thomas and he had plenty of time to celebrate and did so from a long way out. Thomas was 2 secs back with the bunch coming in 6 secs later.

Provisional Result
1st Rupert Denny GWR Team
2nd Thomas Hayward Andover Wheelers @2secs
3rd Tom Smith Private Member @6secs
4th Elliot Davis Team Tor 2000 @st
5th Edward Ashby Private Member @st

King of the Mountains
1st Callum Lister Corinium CC
2nd Tim Wiggins Wightlink Cycle RT
3rd Peter Giddings Zappi’s CC

After the race we spoke to the GWR Team riders and team manager Dan Smith who said it was always their plan to put a rider up the road and then cover each attack as it happened. They managed to do this and it was a great show from the local team who have just returned from racing in Belgium. This was Rupert’s first win of a long hard season and an excellent team performance.