Cycle Premier’s Declan Byrne had his first road race win in the Evesham Road Race (Warwickshire) after his team dominated the event much to the delight of his manager.
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Race Report (organisers)
First and very special win for Declan. Photo Mark WarrenÂ
On a very cold Sunday morning, 80 riders took to the start line in the Evesham Vale Road Race. The riders rolled out at 9.30 to do four laps plus the distance to the finish. Straight away there were plenty of attacks and with less than 10 miles raced, a group of 3 riders got away and had a gap of around 20 seconds. Not long after, another 7 riders joined the three in front to make the break of 10 riders. The break included Declan Byrne, George Moore, Jon Mozley, Jamie Caldwell (Cycle Premier) Tom Stockdale (Primal Europe Powered by RUtraining.co.uk), Jamie Shirlaw (Herbalife), Robert Orr (Velo 29), Simon Holt (Raleigh GAC), Dale Appleby (Metaltek-Scott) and Luke Mellor (Rapha Condor).
With four Cycle Premier riders in the break, it meant that the rest of the riders were forcing them to a lot of the work. About 20 miles, in Luke Mellor had a mechanical and was forced to drop off the breakaway. The lead for the break went up to a minute pretty quickly and did come down due to a hard chase from Felt Colbornes RT, but after a few laps of chasing, they eventually stopped and the gap went up to 1 minute and a half.
Photo Mark WarrenÂ
With just over one lap to go, Dale Appleby unfortunately crashed out of the break. This meant that there were now only 8 riders left in the break. The break kept going and were working hard with a lot of riders starting to miss turns and think about the finish of the race. On the last lap with around 11km to go, Tom Stockdale attacked the breakaway up the short climb past the HQ. It caught a lot of the riders by surprise with only George Moore following. About 500 metres later, Declan Byrne rode across to make it a front group of 3.
The gap soon opened up to around 20 seconds. With around 4km to go, Declan Byrne attacked the group of 3 up another short climb. This left Tom Stockdale to chase him down with George Moore sat on his wheel. Declan Byrne held the lead up to the line with George Moore outsprinting Tom Stockdale for 2nd around 6 seconds behind.
The rest of the break came in in small groups around 30 seconds later with Jamie Shirlaw taking 4th and Jon Mozley 5th, Jamie Caldwell 6th, Robert Orr 7th and Simon Holt 8th who led most of the chase to try and catch the 3 riders in front. Whilst Russel Falder led the rest of the bunch in for 9th place.
Photo Mark WarrenÂ
“I’m really pleased†Declan said afterwards. “It was basically four of us going through all the time and Simon Holt and Dale Appleby missing turns†Declan explained. “Then Dale Appleby crashed with about a lap and a half to go. He sort of attacked I think and either snapped his chain or gears jumped and he went straight over the bars.â€Â  The four Cycle Premier riders continued to work hard before with half a lap to go, Tom Stockdale (Primal Europe) attacked in the tailwind section. “George was on his wheel and that attack caught a lot of people off guard†Declan says.
“I then jumped across to them and I think the others made Simon Holt do the chasing but he was unable to bring us back. I think I went with about three or four k to go and it felt like a long way! I went on the last corner of the finishing straight which is a long straight road that undulates with a lot of drags and it was a brick headwind. It was tough but I just managed to hold them off…â€
Bryne’s win, continues a run of victories for the Cycle Premier team and Declan says he’s looking forward to the first Prem on April 1st when the team will take on the might of the other British teams.
Robb Orr and Simon Holt lead the break. Photo Mark WarrenÂ
More photos may on RUtrainingtoday.co.uk facebook page later and in a few days, www.eveshamwheelers.org.uk
Results
1. Declan Byrne (Cycle Premier Racing Team)
2. George Moore (Cycle Premier Racing Team)
3. Tom Stockdale (Primal Europe powered by RUtrainingtoday.co.uk)
4. Jamie Shirlaw (Herbalife Leisure Lakes )
5. Jon Mozley (Cycle Premier Racing Team)
6. Jamie Caldwell (Cycle Premier Racing Team)
7. Robert Orr (Velo29)
8. Simon Holt (Raleigh GAC)
9. Russel Falder (Cycle Premier Racing Team)
10. Peter Wager (Felt Colbornes RT)
11. Carl Dyson (Clay Cross RT)
12. Richard Bott (Herbalife Leisure Lakes bikes)
13. Glyndwr Griffiths (Urban Cyclery)
14. Jack Catsforth (Herbalife Leisure Lakes bikes)
15. Ash Martin (Cadence Cannondale)
Preview: Click to read a preview of the race and start sheet
