Warren Jesse sprinted clear of his rivals to win the Fareham Wheelers Spring Road Race in Hampshire on Sunday
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Graham Robins writes Private member Warren Jesse sprinted clear with the finish line in sight to win from a group that had formed midway through the race and stayed away until the last climb.
The race was held in bright sunshine but on a chilly windy morning over an eight and a half mile course used earlier in the season for the Perfs Pedal classic. The riders had to complete five complete laps and they had to tackle the climb towards the finish six times. The course was dry but the riders took the first couple of laps at a sedate pace while they checked out the course looking for places out of the wind to escape.
So after two laps, there was the first of two primes and this was won by Simon Healey (Andover Wheelers) with the entire race together at this point. Once out onto the exposed section of the course, riders were trying to find some shelter from the wind and gaps started to appear.
When the riders descended the hill back towards the HQ there was a split in the bunch and a group of five riders started to form at the front and pull out a ten second gap. Driving the race along at the front was Simon Fox (Vicious Velo) and Stuart Bettis (Team Terminator), with help from Simon Healey and James Fox (London Dynamo). As this group started to climb towards the finish line their slender lead was pulled back and the remainder of the bunch pulled them back.
At this point the bunch then splits into two groups with the leading group now forming and one by one riders got across and they got a lead of about one minute. The group was now fifteen riders strong and they soon started to increase their lead to over one minute thirty seconds leaving the remainder to fragment as gaps started to appear.
The second of the primes was on lap four and this was won by Simon Fox although the group was still all together. The penultimate lap saw the leading group’s gap extend to one minute fifty as they went through the finish line and the race was over for the bunch as it was now split.
The leading group stayed together until the final climb and with less than 1km to go Warren attacked and pulled away turning into the finish straight first and with daylight between him and second place. After Warren had finished there was a sprint for second between Phillip Touzeau (Guernsey Velo Club) and Matthew Conner (SuperNova Cycles) and these two were a few seconds clear of Matthew Osborn (Guernsey Velo Club).
Photos: Graham Robbins:Â http://www.grahamrobins.net/
Provisional Result
1 Warren Jesse Private Member
2 Phillip Touzeau Guernsey Velo Club @6secs
3 Matthew Connor SuperNova Cycles @st
4 Matthew Miles In –Gear Quickvit Trainsharp.
5 Matthew Osborn Guernsey Velo Club
6 Matt Ullmer Team Traveller
7 Callum Bramley Langdale Lightweights RT
8 Matthew Melville Python RT
9 Simon Healey Andover Wheelers
10 Nigel Williams Python RT
