Reading CC Spring Road Race

Alex Baskaya (Dream CC) braved the horrible conditions to solo to a fine win in the Oxfordshire countryside.

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Graham Robins Report & Photos | Sunday 29th April 2012

Deciding to go it alone, Alex attacked the remainder of the bunch with two laps to go to finish alone almost two and a half minutes clear. With a lot of standing water from the overnight rain and the very strong side wind, it was not surprising so few riders finished the race. The rain continued throughout the race and those that did finish knew they had survived a long day in the saddle.

 

Many riders said that the side wind blowing across the exposed fields was like riding into a wall, with the lighter riders blown all over the road and towards the deep puddles on the side of the road.

The course was a rolling course with a long climb from Goring towards the finish line which they had to climb five times in the fifty seven mile race. There was one prime which was on lap three and this was won by Henry Latimer also of the Dream CC team.

On the first two laps the only thing to happen was the abandonment of half the eighty entries, there were a couple of attacks on the long main road section but the wind did it’s best to pull the race back together. Once a small group did form, they had no shelter and the attack came to nothing.

On lap three Alex rode away from the bunch just after the finish line and he soon built up a lead and once he turned out onto the main road he used all his time trialling skills to ‘smash it’ and he soon had a large gap. The only rider able to react was Nicolas Baker (Zappi’s CC), and by time he got away from the bunch Alex was already clear.

At the bell the gap between Alex and Nicholas was 1min 15secs and the gap to the bunch was 2min20secs. Once again Alex put in a good turn on the main road and managed to gain another minute.

So at the finish Alex soloed to a fine win in the horrible conditions, with Nicholas trailing in 2min 27secs later with third place and the bunch well over five minutes down.

Result
1 Alex Baskaya Dream CC 2hrs 34mins
2 Nicholas Baker Zappi’s CC @2min 27secs
3 Harry Evens Team VO2 @5min 45secs
4 Lawrence Carpenter Team VO2
5 Flavio Zappi Zappi’s CC
6 Phillip Star Python RT
7 Matthew Melville Python RT
8 Richard Prebble Node4- Giordana Racing
9 Sam Larkham Bristol South CC
10 Mike Debney London Dynamo


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