Report: Victor Berlemont Trophy

Tom Copeland has won the  Victor Belemont Trophy  (Surrey League) 140 kilometre road race on Wednesday night by half a wheel from Andy Hastings.

Report: Doug Collins | Results: Mark Doel | Photos: John Scott

The classic Victor Berlemont Road Race first run in 1951 under the “other” organisation, the British League of Racing Cyclists, was re-run again for the second time, since it lapsed in 1996 under the banner of the original club, Southern Velo, with the welcome attendance of Terry O’Brien, the 1955 winner.

In 2011, on a beautiful racing day in Surrey there was a disappointing entry of only 54 starters from Dunsfold Common for the 140 km race of three laps of the Alfold Circuit and seven laps of the 12 km finishing circuit around Dunsfold. However, there was a class field of Elite, 1st, 2nd and 3rd and Juinior riders and it proved to be avery good race with a group of 18 riders splitting the field after 25 km establishing a 50 sec lead which steadily increased, in the break the driving force being the three Sigma riders of Copeland, Betts and Sybrandy, along with Atkins of Obrea. Also in the group, returning to racing after a rest from his Belgium racing was Junior Dante Carpenter.

After completing the first circuit, the time gap was steadily increasing with Sybrandy returning to the leading group after a solo effort and mechanical trouble. Although the gap was ever increasing, there were groups and individual efforts from riders to bridge the gap to the breakaway group. With 20 km to go, a very likely looking trio of riders, Betts, Parry and Falder established what looked to be a winning break of 50 sec, but with Sybrandy and Copeland left in the breakaway group and blocking, it looked to be a winning move, however, with the group breaking up, they were finally brought back within 8 km due to a headwind on the long straight.

From there, another solo effort by Adam (Andy) Cotterell, from Wyndy Milla also looked as if it could be successful and as a result of his efforts, he was awarded the Combativity Cup. With 5 km to go perhaps the two strongest riders in the race, Copeland and Hastings, slipped away from the remaining break after an attempt by Andy Betts to ride away which failed. The two were helped again by the blocking tactics of Betts and Sybrandy which helped the duo to have a free run to the finish, with a 35 sec advantage.

It was a very tricky finish coming off of the circuit with 400 metres remaining of a short, sharp climb up to 200m and a final 100 metres of flat road to the line. It was Copeland who proved to be the strongest rider and a very worthy winner of the Victor Berlemont Trophy. All credit to Andy Hastings for a fine effort in pushing him all the way.

The remainder of the break was lead in by Andy Betts, holding off Lewis Atkins, with junior, Dante Carpenter, finishing in a top ten position. Dante was presented with the other cup from the Mills family, which unfortunately was left in Battersea due to the riots in London.

The race ran exceedingly well and the organisers were most grateful for all the assistance from the officials, NEGS and most all the tremendous turn-out of marshals which made a worthy Victor Berlemont Race. Finally, at the presentation Tom Copeland thanked everyone for making it such a success.

Result
1        Tom    Copeland    Sigma Sport- Specialized    03:22:37
2        Andy    Hastings    Finchley RT    st
3        Andy    Betts    La Fuga – Sigma Sport    at 28secs
4        Lewis     Atkins    Twenty 3c Orbea    st
5        Colin    Parry    Wilier-GoSelfdrive.com    st
6        Dean    Shannon    Twenty 3c Orbea    st
7        Flavio     Zappi    Team Zappis    at 1.34
8        Dante    Carpenter    Asfra RT    at 1.39
9        Wouter    Sybrandy    Sigma Sport- Specialized    at 1.45
10        Adam    Cotterell    Wyndymilla    at 2.48
11        Martin    Smith    Primal Europe    st
12        Andy    Udal    Mammoth Lifestyle RT    st
13        Chris    McNamara    Team Corley Cycles    st
14        Anthony    Moye    CC Luton    st
15        Russell    Falder    Mammoth Lifestyle RT    st
16        Guy    Powdrill    London Dynamo / Prologue    at 2.58
17        Derek    Bouchard-Hall    BC Private    at 3.16
18        Richard    Cartland    Team Corley Cycles    at 7.10
19        Douglas    Coleman    Anders Electronic / TMG Horizon    st
20        David    Kennett    GB Cycles.co.uk    at 7.14
21        Michael    Brown    Progressive Cycle Coaching    at 8.01
22        Andy    Edwards    Kingston Wheelers    at 8.46
23        Nick    Beale    Beeline RT    at 8.51
24        Robin    Parker    East Grinstead    at 9.56
25        Chris    Boote    Team Zappis    st
26        Pete    Smith    Team Jewson    st
27        Joe    Harris    Reading CC    st
28        David    Murrell    London Phoenix    st
29        Chris    Snook    Banjo Cycles    st
30        Lawrence    Carpenter    Rapha Condor CC    at 10.01
31        Paul    McGuigan    Norwood Paragon    at 10.10
32        Graham    Hills    InGear Quickvit RT    st
33        Henry    Latimer    Team Zappis    at 10.19
34        Mike    Betts    Vegetarian C&AC    st
35        David    Seager    Kingsnorth International Wheelers    st
36        Charlie     Fawke    Progressive Cycle Coaching    st

Thanks to Doug Collins and Mark Doel for the info. Pictures from John Scott are on their way!