News – Chorley Grand Prix

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Coming soon, National Series for the Star Trophy – Information on the course for the first ‘Prem’ of the season, the Chorley Grand Prix

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News – Chorley Grand Prix

NOTE: Send your results as well as club, team & event news here

Organiser of the Eddie Soens Memorial, Carl Lawrenson, has teamed up with Carole Leigh to promote the first event in the ‘Star Trophy’ (called the Spring Cup by BC) for 2015, the Chorley GP.

The race, called the Chorley Grand Prix, is being sponsored by the Chorley Building Society. The start and finish line will be on Park Road in Chorley town centre with the road race taking in Chorley, Rivington, Belmont, Abbey Village, Withnell, Brinscall, Wheelton, Buckshaw Village and back to Chorley. The riders will complete five laps of the circuit but there will generally be rolling road closures in place, which will mean very minimal disruption to traffic.

The race will more than likely be the first event of 2015 where fans will get to see all the major British teams go head-to-head in a British race after warm up events either in the early season ‘classics’ that have stood the stead of time, or, the European UCI events that many of the teams will try and get a ride in.

2015_ChorleyGP_SMALL

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Britain has six UCI Continental teams; NFTO (not for the ordinary), Madison Genesis, Team Raleigh-GAC, ONE Pro Cycling, WIGGINS and JLT-Condor. As well as them, there will be others such as SportGrub Kuota, CatfordCC Equipe/Banks, Pedal Heaven, and Team Polypipe to name but a small number of the bigger non UCI teams who will be contesting the Star Trophy counting events.

The series began in 1959 as the Star Trophy and in 1993 was changed to the Premier Calendar despite the winner still receiving the Star Trophy. Then British Cycling changed the name again in recent years, two names actually, but with the overall winner still getting the Star Trophy which has many a household name on it.

In fact there are so many famous names, it’s easy to point you to the list below. Last year, the winner was Raleigh’s Yanto Barker and the year before, another rider from Raleigh, Evan Oliphant.

Over the years the number of events has dwindled for various reasons with most of the major classics like the Tour of the Cotswolds, Archer GP, Tour of the Peaks and too many others to name now gone, probably forever.

New in 2015 though is the Chorley Grand Prix and it’s going to be a tough race. Held on Saturday, 4th April, the race will start and finish in Chorley with the riders doing five laps of a 23.2 mile circuit to make a total distance of 186 kilometres.

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In Summary, the course will be:
Chorley – Rivington – Belmont – Abbey Village – Withnell – Brinscall – Wheelton – Buckshaw – Chorley
Start/Finish: Park Road, Chorley
Neutralised section: 2.4 miles / 3.9 km
23.2 miles / 37.3 km per lap
Race distance: 5 laps, 116.0 miles / 186.7 km

It is, according to the organisers, a tough course, and being the first one of the year, will soon find out who’s got the form and who hasn’t ahead of six months of intense racing for the British elite riders.

Here are the maps:

2015_ChorleyGPFinish_Small

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Former winners of the Star Trophy
1959 John Perks
1960 Jim Hinds
1961 Kenny Hill
1962 Wes Mason
1963 Derek Harrison
1964 George Halls
1965 Les West
1966 Hugh Porter
1967 Peter Buckley
1968 Dave Rollinson
1969 Peter Matthews
1970 Peter Matthews
1971 John Clewarth
1972 Phil Bayton
1973 Phil Griffiths
1974 Tony Gornall
1975 Phil Griffiths
1976 Paul Sherwen
1977 Steve Lawrence
1978 Steve Lawrence
1979 Bob Downs
1980 Steve Joughin
1981 Bob Downs
1982 Steve Joughin
1983 Malcolm Elliott
1984 Peter Longbottom
1985 Paul Curran
1986 Paul Curran
1987 Paul Curran
1988 Paul Curran
1989 Ben Luckwell
1990 Steve Farrell
1991 Steve Farrell
1992 Mark McKay

Called the Premier Calendar

1993 Mark Walsham
1994 John Tanner
1995 John Tanner
1996 Mark Walsham
1997 John Tanner
1998 Chris Newton
1999 Gordon McCauley
2000 Mark Lovatt
2001 John Tanner
2002 John Tanner
2003 Mark Lovatt
2004 Malcolm Elliott
2005 Robin Sharman
2006 Kristian House
2007 Chris Newton
2008 Russell Downing
2009 Russell Downing
2010 Chris Newton
2011 Ian Bibby
2012 Scott Thwaites
2013 Evan Oliphant
2014 Yanto Barker

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