Report – Victor Berlemont RR

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Report and full result for the Victor Berlemont Road Race won by Dan Patten of Team Wiggins from teammate Michael Thompson

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Report – Victor Berlemont RR

Organiser’s Report

Does the name Wiggins now have a special power to inspire?

Team Wiggins had a good day taking the first two places, Dan Patten taking the laurels and his team mate Mike Thompson taking the second place and the combativity prize.

The team also featured in the long break which marked the first half of the race with just two brave second category riders who gained a lead of over three minutes. They were Dan Bigham (Beeline Bicycle RT) and Luc Hall (Team Wiggins) who said: “I didn’t really try to get away but I found myself off the front with a willing companion and it just seemed right to keep going”. Although there wasn’t much hope that they would stay the whole distance they made the field work hard to catch them, and this almost certainly had an effect on the final outcome since Hall’s team mates naturally let the other teams do the chasing and so must have been fresher when the serious work began.

At three laps to go a slight drizzle started, and with another half lap covered by two p.m. it was undeniably raining. This had a demoralising effect on some of the tired legs which had already done seven ascents of the one in ten climb from Goring. A voice on the race radio commented; “It’s only the front nine who are still in the race”. In fact it was only the first four who were really in contention by this time: Dante Carpenter (JLT Condor), Max Stedman (Pedal Heaven), Mike Thompson and Dan Patten (Team Wiggins).

The two Wiggins riders knew what they wanted – to arrive at the finish alone, and having dropped Carpenter they knew they ought to succeed, but while Stedman may look small and fragile he proved to be very resilient and withstood alternating attacks from Patten and Thompson right up to the final turn onto the wind assisted back straight on the last lap.

Here Patten attacked again, gained a lead of two hundred yards which Stedman, weakening at last, could not get back, eventually finishing in third place a few seconds down on Thompson. Mitchell Webber (Pedal Heaven) came in fourth at 1.28 and Wouter Sybrandy was fifth a further 14 seconds in arrears. Wouter commented “I did this the hard way” meaning he had done a lot of chasing.

Two rides a little further down the list  which are worthy of note were John Mulvey (Cambridge University CC), ninth, who took the prize for the highest placed third category rider, and David Hewett (Adalta CC) tenth, who came to the event alone, suffered dehydration and only survived because the Sigma Sport support team generously gave him drinks.

There was probably not much to choose between Dan Patten and Mike Thompson – victory was likely to go to the one whose attack disposed of the last of the opposition and, as Thompson said afterwards, “This is a team sport and our objective was to get a team win.”

The winner, Dan Patten, describes himself as a late starter in cycling, beginning at nineteen when an injury ended his running career. Having missed out on youth training programmes here he followed the classic path to cycling success by going to Belgium and spending three seasons riding for Belgian teams. He said “I have made the effort to learn Dutch and some of the Flemish dialect – it’s helped me to be accepted, even though they still laugh at my mistakes.” His early season this year was blighted with poor form, but the enforced rest this caused has paid off with good form now. His last event of the year will be a new UCI stage race in Abu Dhabi – we wish him luck there.

From Chris Lovibond

First report from Graham Robins 

On a wet afternoon in Oxfordshire Daniel Patten of Team Wiggins ran out winner of the Victor Berlemont Road Race after 104 miles. Patten jumped across the gap to three leaders with two laps to go to join team mate Michael Thompson who had lead the race from the second lap. Patten then continued his attack to solo the last lap to beat Thompson by 33secs.

Patten

The morning started with overcast skies but it was warm with no indication of the rain to come in with two laps to go. The 66 riders rolled away from the HQ to start the first of the eight and three quarter lap, and straight away there were attacks which were quickly covered by the attentive peloton.

The start of lap two back outside the HQ there were two leaders Michael Thompson and Daniel Bingham (Beeline Cycles) and the two had opened out a large lead of over 1min 30secs. Over the next lap the gap increased to nearly two minutes to a large chasing group and nearly three minutes to the peloton. The two leaders held onto their lead but Bingham was beginning to feel the pressure and fell away on the climb towards the finish. The chasing group were now closing in and it wasn’t long before two riders Max Steadman (Pedal Heaven) and Dante Carpenter (JLT Condor) made the junction across to Thompson.

The leaders now were starting the sixth lap with a lead of 50secs over a chasing group and the remainder of the peloton were now 2mins 15secs down as the rain started. As the rain got heavier the peloton started to split into small pieces making it very difficult to conduct a meaningful challenge to the front of the race.

At this point in the race Patten made his final attack to get across to the three leaders and once across he continued to help build the lead. The chasing group of twelve riders were now organised and starting to whittle the gap down

Soon after the bell Patten started to ease away on the front as Carpenter went the other way and the chasing group began to gain nearly half the gap back. Steadman and Mitchell Webber (Pedal Heaven) were the first to take advantage of the splits and they pulled out 30secs on the remainder of the chasing group.

With the lead now secured Patten was able to tackle the climb from Goring on his own to roll to the finish line with half a minute to spare. Thompson came in second to complete a Team Wiggins one-two but not to outdone the riders from Pedal Heaven finished third fourth and sixth.

Result
1. Daniel Patten Team Wiggins 4hrs 17mins 31secs
2. Michael Thompson Team Wiggins @33secs
3. Max Steadman Pedal Heaven RT @47secs
4. Mitchell Webber Pedal Heaven RT @1min 28secs
5. Wouter Sybrandy Nunn-Sigma Sport London RT @1min 42secs
6. Robert McCarthy Pedal Heaven RT @1min 58secs
7. William Goulbourne Corley Cycles-Drops RT @1min 58secs
8. Dante Carpenter JLT Condor @2mins 14secs
9. John Mulvey Cambridge University CC @4mins 25secs and first 3rd Cat
10. David Hewett Adalta Cycling Club @4mins 25secs
11. Anthony Morris, CC Ashwell
12. Scott Probert, Stourbridge
13. Matthew Clarke, London Dynamo
14. Tom Neale, Catford CC/Banks
15. Michael Smith, Corley Cycles Drops
16. Jack Stanton Warren, Halesowen
17. Mike Wragg, Arbis Colbert
18. James Wilson, VC St Raphael
19. Michael Cripps, Army CU
20. William Scott, Bonito Squadra Course
21. Ed Laverack, JLT Condor
22. Benjamin Marks, Cycleworks
23. Andrew Pickett, Eden
24. Joe Harris, Easton Ritte
25. Simon Henly, Corley cycles drops
26. Mark Perry, All terrain
27. Steve James High Wycombe
28. Paul Caton, TMG Horizon
29. Simon Brooks, VC St Raphael
30. Ben Sumner, Beeline cycles
31. Joshua Jones, Team Tor 2000
32. Richard Wood, Arbis Colbert
33. David Billings, VC St Raphael
34. Thomas Bowering, ride 24/7
35. Liam Walsh, VC St Raphael
36. Oliver Davies, OVB
37. Edward Watkiss, Corley cycles drops
38. Lewis Atkins, Pedal Heaven
39. Make Yale, VC Revolution
40. Matthew Cryer, Army CU
41. Henry Latimer, Catford CC Banks
42. Alex Fanshaw, Zappis
43. Lawence Carpenter, Catford CC Banks
44. Tom Burnley, Thames Velo

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