Tuesday 16th August saw the final round of the Martyn Dobson Memorial Series (North East), with overal winners in no less than 12 different race categories.
Starting with the Youth as usual, there were double the number of A and B cat riders tonight. But this made little difference to the results as Bradley Naughton, Matthew Worton and Alice Grieve all won their respective categories and consequently their overall classifications too. The C, D & E categories were well supported throughout the whole series and tonight was no different. The youth winners tonight were:
YOUTH
Cat A
1. Bradley Naughton    Stockton Wheelers CC
2. Thomas Parkin    Dirtwheels Cycles
3. Declan Bowler    Stockton Wheelers CC
Girls
1. Alice Grieve    Stockton Wheelers CC
2. Laura Kotch    Cleveland Wheelers CC
Cat B
1. Matthew Worton    Hetton Hawks Cycling Club
2. Jake Dobson    Newcastle Phoenix Cycling Club
3. Ben Honeysett    Cleveland Wheelers CC
Cat C
1. Toby Tanfield    Cleveland Wheelers CC
2. Nathan Smith
3. Ross Turner
Girls
1. Ffion Lanigon
2. Helen Kotch    Cleveland Wheelers CC
Cat D
1. Connor Eyeington    Cleveland Wheelers CC
2. Robert Forrest    Stockton Wheelers CC
Girls
1. Abi Smith
2. Elle Liddle
3. Lauren Kilcullen    Stockton Wheelers CC
Cat E
1. Patrick Kilcullen    Stockton Wheelers CC
2. Zachary Johnstone    Stockton Wheelers CC
Seniors
Consistant points scorer Michael Dales of Velo29 came away the overal victor of the Martyn Dobson Memorial Trophy courtesy of wining the 6-up sprint finish in the final round. Second place on the night went to Craig Anderson of Black Hawk Bikes in his first ride of the series, and third place went to Richard Meadows (Velo29) who had lead the series from the first week until the final round. Richard was clearly disappointed to have missed out on the overall win, and having finished equal on points with Dales can consider himself very unlucky.
With a strong wind blowing, the race tonight was hard from the gun. It wasn’t long before the race had split into 3 distinct groups. Leading the way were Dales, Meadows, Jack Rees (Velo29), Craig Anderson and Simon Baxter (Herbalife Wheelbase).
In the chase group was eventual 4th placed overall Kevin Byers, Marcus Smith (Black Hawk Bikes), series organiser Dan Smith (Velo29), Chris Mark (Velo29) and dispensated youth riders Charlie Tanfield (Velo29) and James King (Columba CC). Doing the majority of the chasing in this group were Smith, King and Byers who had most to gain and they almost made the juncture… but not quite. They did however provide the launch pad for Chris Mark who powered across the gap alone to join the leaders.
Back in the bunch, Giles Pidcock (Epic Cycles), Alex Bottomley (Fietsen Tempo) and Thomas Timothy (Velo29), who had all been overall contenders found themselves stalemated and out of the running for victory.
The Green Jersey Competition was sown up tonight by Martin Hopkinson of Fietsen Tempo without him having to turn a pedal, thanks to his big lead in the competition. The winner of tonight’s sprint though was S Deeley of Southport CC, and this was enough to give him 2nd place in the competition. 3rd place overall went to Graham Topp of Stockton Wheelers.
1 Michael Dales (Velo29)
2 Craig Anderson (Black Hawk Bikes)
3 Richard Meadows (Velo29)
4 Jack Rees (Velo29)
5 Simon Baxter (Herbalife Wheelbase)
6 Chris Mark (Velo29)
7 Kevin Byers (Fietsen Tempo)
8 Charlie Tanfield (Velo29)
9 Dan Smith (Velo29)
10 James King (Columba CC)
Overall in Martyn Dobson Memorial Trophy
1 Michael Dales (Velo29) 29 pts
2 Richard Meadows (Velo29) 29 pts
3 Harry Tanfield (Wallis Cycles) 17 pts
4 Kevin Byers (Fietsen Tempo) 16 pts
5 Giles Pidcock (Epic Cycles) 16 pts
6 Alex Bottomley (Fietsen Tempo) 15 pts
7 Thomas Timothy (Velo29) 15 pts
8 David Johnson (Adept Precision) 13 pts
9 Simon Baxter (Herbalife Wheelbase) 12 pts
10 Jack Rees (Velo29) 11 pts
