Report & Result: South Cerney Road Race

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There were wins for Corinne Clark (Ride 24/7) and Joe Barry (Performance Cycles) in the beautiful setting of South Cerney on Sunday

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Report & Result: South Cerney Road Race

Sunday 24th May | from Graham Robins

There were wins for Corinne Clark (Ride 24/7) and Joe Barry (Performance Cycles) in the beautiful setting of South Cerney near Cirencester. Both riders were winners after bunch sprints into the decked out village along with its villagers coming out in numbers to support the racing while enjoying a drink in the many water holes around the finish line. The races were part of the Cotswold League and were promoted by local bike shop Performance Cycles.

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The mornings racing got underway with the first ever women’s race at South Cerney following the success of the previous two years men’s race held on this course, they had to complete ten laps around the village with a total of 48miles of racing. Just as the women rode for the HQ just on the edge of the town it started to rain and continued to rain on the first couple of laps making the roads slippery and the riders were very wary and average speeds were slow. However once the rain stopped the roads dried quickly under the mid day sunshine.

It took just over seven laps of very animated riding by the leading teams before a break formed up and once it did it went quickly. Seven women made the jump coming downhill before the turn back into the village and once across the line on the eighth lap the lead was already over a minute and with only another eight left in the bunch the gap grew larger. The leading group consisted of Victoria Grimmer (Paramount CRT), Phoebe Speck and Corinne Clark (Ride 24/7), Harriet Guest and Rebecca Waters (Performance Cycles), Lucy Burgess (Bristol South CC and Poppy Thompson (Cwmcarn Paragon CC).

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The lead group pulled even more time out over the bunch and with riders from the leading group in the chase group they were not going to chase it down. Poppy Thompson was caught out by the speed of the attack and she was dropped on the next lap leaving just six at the bell.

As they made their way back to the village the group were all together and it all came down to a bunch sprint with Corinne just holding off a charging Rebecca on the line. The win rounds of a pretty successful week for the 30 year old rider from Cirencester as last weekend Corinne was runner up at the South Divisional Road Race and in mid week took part in her first Pearl Izumi Tour Series at Redditch. Rebecca Waters won the ‘Queen of the Sprints’, and Lucy Burgess completed out the podium positions.

After watching the locals race a one lap time trial around the village it was the turn of the men to take to the course, which by now had dried up and the sun was shining as the 60+ riders waited on the line to start the race.

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As the men rolled away they were going to be racing a total of 12 laps and a total of 55 miles. The first lap didn’t see any action as riders were looking for space on the road. But on lap two there were two crashes bringing down riders, the first one accounted for a couple but the second crash as they approached the outskirts of the village about 20 riders were involved in a touch of wheels.

Maybe the crashes focused thee riders or the fast pace of each lap but there wasn’t any rider prepared to take the lead and each attack came and went as the attentive bunch were alive to attacks.

On the eighth lap a brace of riders slipped of the front and soon managed to build a lead very quickly. The two escapees were Grant Bayton (Ride 24/7) and Dean Hitchings (Cotswold Cycles RT) and their lead soon went out to 20secs and they managed to hold this for a couple of laps before it all came back together at the far end of the village. Dean and Grant must have wished the race was one lap shorter as they were picked up and dropped as the big bunch came into town at great speed at Joe Barry had a lead out from a rival rider which he accepted and had time to get the arms up as he crossed the line ahead of George Bartlett (NFTO) and Mike Ward (Performance Cycles). Mark Perry (Ride 24/7) was the winner of the sprints prize

Provisional Results

Women
1st Corinne Clark Ride 24/7
2nd Rebecca Waters Performance Cycles
3rd Lucy Burgess Bristol South CC
4th Phoebe Speck Ride 24/7
5th Harriet Guest Performance Cycles
6th Victoria Grimmer Paramount CRT

Men
1st Joe Barry Performance Cycles
2nd George Bartlett NFTO
3rd Mike Ward Performance Cycles

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