Report – Tour of Sussex 3 day

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A young rider with an eye on racing at the top level, David Hewett (Adalta CC) writes about his win in the Tour of Sussex 3 Day stage race last weekend

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Report – Tour of Sussex 3 day 

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David writes – Surrey League’s Tour of Sussex 3 day stage race for 2/3 category riders kicked off on Friday evening with a 55km road race held on the fast, flat Laughton circuit near Ringmer. Despite everything to play for, the bunch rode at a sedate pace and allowed a break of three riders to clear up the time bonuses on offer to the top 3 stage finishers as well as gain a 38 second time gap on the bunch.

The sprint from which was won by Jesse Yates (InGear Quickvit RT). The riders in the break were eventual green jersey winner Albert Ellison (Bottecchia UK), wearer of the yellow jersey for stage 3 Alex Tinsley (Twickenham CC) and Carl Farrell (Sussex Revolution VC).

Day 2
The following morning, the race convoy had relocated to the rolling, technical Hellingly circuit for the 88km stage 2 road race. With the yellow jersey of Ellison suffering an unfortunate early puncture which ultimately saw him lose more than two minutes on GC, the bunch looked to Tinsley to control the race, who was sporting the green jersey on behalf of Ellison for the day.

Riders put in numerous attacks and several breakaways seemed to become well established throughout the race before being brought back. It was the trio of Richard Whitehorn (Dulwich Paragon CC), Stephen Cavey (34th Nomads) and Damian Breen (Paceline RT) who stayed clear ahead of chasers Mark Emsley (Team ASL360) and Gareth Thomas (Paceline RT). These results saw the yellow jersey pass from Tinsley to Whitehorn, whilst Albert Ellison held on to the green jersey.

Time Trial
The riders then had just a few short hours to recover from the morning’s racing before tackling a 3.7km stage 3 time trial which started on Eastbourne sea front and ascended 125m to the top of Beachy Head via a series of hairpins and an exposed hill top road.

Made all the more unpleasant by hot conditions, and with riders split between using full TT bike setups or sticking with lightweight road bikes, only nine riders dipped below 8 minutes. Gareth Thomas (Paceline RT) set the fastest time on the day, just a single second quicker than me but importantly 1 min 19secs quicker than the yellow jersey of Richard Whitehorn. Alex Tinsley rode strongly to finish just 6 secs down on Thomas, enough for him to take the yellow jersey into the final stage and also the green points jersey from Ellison by just a single point.

Final Stage
Sunday morning saw the riders wake to heavy rain, gusting winds and cool conditions on the gruelling Beachy Head circuit. Covering 81km of exposed, flooding lanes and a steep, selective 150m climb up to the hill top finish each lap to contend with, the tired bunch was splintering as soon as the flag came into the lead car.

The pace was fierce up the climb up to the circuit which the riders had tackled the previous evening in the TT but it wasn’t until the 3rd time up the finishing climb that I was able to break the elastic, driving over the top and taking Marcus Culey (Northern Sydney CC) with me.

We worked hard to put ourselves out of sight and built up a lead of almost two minutes at one point. With two laps to go, an almighty effort from Albert Ellison (wearing the green jersey on Tinsley’s behalf) saw him bridge solo across to us. Both Culey and I knew that the yellow jersey was on offer but with just four seconds separating us on GC, the finishing bonus seconds would prove decisive.

On the finishing climb, Culey pushed on whilst Ellison faded after his previous efforts, I had just enough to come round Culey in the closing meters to take the stage and claim the overall GC! Ellison held on for 3rd place on the stage, and in doing so claimed the green points jersey.

A fantastic weekend of racing by all the riders, made possible by the hard work of the race organisers, commissaires, marshals/volunteers and the NEG. Thanks to the support of ASL360, WE Clark & Son, Eastbourne Borough Council, The Afton Hotel, The Health Boutique, and The John Harvey Tavern for enabling the 3rd Surrey League Tour of Sussex stage race to take place.

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Final Overall
1st David Hewett (Adalta CC) 05:53:19
2nd Marcus Culey (Northern Sydney CC) +14sec
3rd Alex Tinsley (Twickenham CC) +49sec
4th Robin Warman (Pretorius Bikes) +1min 10secs
5th Gareth Thomas (Paceline RT) +1min 14secs
6th Albert Ellison (Bottecchia UK) +1min 32secs
7th Joshua Haasz (VC de Londres) +1min 52sec
8th Mark Emsley (Team ASL360) +1min 53sec
9th Murray Davies (InGear Quickvit RT) +1min 54sec
10th Ray Wilson (London Dynamo) +1min 59sec
11th Oliver Jedrej (Dulwich Paragon CC) +2min 1sec
12th Dominic Clegg (Paceline RT) s.t.
13th Jesse Yates (InGear Quickvit RT) +2min 3sec
14th Max Bergin (VC de Londres) +2min 25sec
15th Michael Guilford (VC Meudon) +2min 26sec
16th Stuart Spies (London Dynamo) +2min 46sec
17th Jean-Claude Pretorius (Pretorius Bikes) +2min 56sec
18th Matt Cleaver (Blazing Saddles) +3min 59sec
19th Matthew Butt (CC Hackney) +5min 42sec
20th Paul Barnard (Southdowns Bikes) +6min 10sec

Points Jersey:

1st Albert Ellison (Bottecchia UK) 29pts
2nd Marcus Culey (Northern Sydney CC) 27pts
3rd David Hewett (Adalta CC) 25pts
4th Gareth Thomas (Paceline RT) 22pts
5th Alex Tinsley (Twickenham CC) 17pts
6th Richard Whitehorn (Dulwich Paragon CC) 15pts
7th Robin Warman (Pretorius Bikes) 14pts
8th Mark Emsley (Team ASL360) 13pts
= Philip Glowinski (VC de Londres) ”
10th Stephen Cavey (34th Nomads) 12pts

Stage 1:
1st Albert Ellison (Bottecchia UK) 01:24:01
2nd Alex Tinsley (Twickenham CC) s.t.
3rd Carl Farrell (Sussex Revolution VC) s.t.
4th Jesse Yates (InGear Quickvit RT) +38sec
5th William Fazackerley (Sussex Revolution VC) s.t.
6th Philip Glowinski (VC de Londres) s.t.
7th Gavin Jones (Sussex Revolution VC) s.t.
8th Craig Barnett (Wyndymilla) s.t.
9th Robin Warman (Pretorius Bikes) s.t.
10th Rupert Gordon-Watkins (Kingston Wheelers) s.t.

Stage 2:
1st Richard Whitehorn (Dulwich Paragon CC) 02:14:13
2nd Stephen Cavey (34th Nomads) s.t.
3rd Damian Breen (Paceline RT) s.t.
4th Mark Emsley (Team ASL360) +25sec
5th Gareth Thomas (Paceline RT) +29sec
6th Stuart Spies (London Dynamo) +40sec
7th Michael Guilford (VC Meudon) s.t.
8th Philip Glowinski (VC de Londres) s.t.
9th Marcus Culey (Northern Sydney CC) s.t.
10th Geoffrey Lulham (Private Member) s.t.

Stage 3 (TT):
1st Gareth Thomas (Paceline RT) 00:07:41
2nd David Hewett (Adalta CC) +1sec
3rd Marcus Culey (Northern Sydney CC) +5sec
4th Alex Tinsley (Twickenham CC) +6sec
5th Robin Warman (Pretorius Bikes) +10sec
6th Dominic Clegg (Paceline RT) +11sec
7th Michael Guilford (VC Meudon) +13sec
8th Albert Ellison (Bottecchia UK) +15sec
9th Richard Cartland (Southdowns Bikes) +16sec
= George Jary (VC de Londres) s.t.

Stage 4:
1st David Hewett (Adalta CC) 02:06:35
2nd Marcus Culey (Northern Sydney CC) s.t.
3rd Albert Ellison (Bottecchia UK) +6sec
4th Robin Warman (Pretorius Bikes) +31sec
5th Gareth Thomas (Paceline RT) +56sec
6th Murray Davies (InGear Quickvit RT) +59sec
7th Oliver Jedrej (Dulwich Paragon CC) +1min 2sec
8th Joshua Haasz (VC de Londres) +1min 5sec
9th Jesse Yates (InGear Quickvit RT) s.t.
10th Ray Wilson (London Dynamo) s.t.

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