Report: South Staffordshire & Shropshire RRL 6

Ben Joughin timed his effort to perfection and clinched his second victory in as many weeks in the South Staffordshire & Shropshire Road Race League

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

Report: South Staffordshire & Shropshire RRL 6
Photos:  David Perry | Words: Ben Goddard

Ben Joughin timed his effort to perfection and clinched his second victory in as many weeks in the South Staffordshire & Shropshire Road Race League. The 30-year-old, from Stoke-on-Trent, who sprinted to victory on the same course last week did the same on this occasion.

Ben Joughin (left) sprints to a narrow victory ahead of David Griffiths

However, the handicap system made Joughin work for his victory and he only bridged across to the slower groups with a small chasing group of eight riders in the final stages of the race.
The chasers averaged 28 miles per hour in windy conditions to take over a minute off the leading rider’s advantage in the closing miles. Shrewsbury rider Chris Pook challenged Joughin for his overall leader’s jersey but could only manage fourth in the dash for the line.

“It was hard work tonight as I was struggling a bit with a chest infection,” said Joughin following the victory. “I was on the back foot from the start and just sat in for the first couple of laps. There was an attack away from the scratch group with two laps to go which included eight riders. When it mattered I had the legs although I was struggling most of the night and I just pulled it out of the bag.

Joe Charley (Stourbridge CC) leads the chasing group

“One of my main rivals for overall Chris Pook made the split so I obviously couldn’t let him go up the road and had to chase. We then put the hammer down and made contact with the leading group with about one kilometre to go. It was pretty close on the line, when David Griffiths jumped I knew he was strong and I just managed to get around him on the line. I wanted to defend the yellow jersey tonight.”

Oswestry based rider David Griffiths was just beaten into second while Ben Manfield finished third. The rest of the scratch group failed to catch the first groups away and had to settle for the minor placings. Steph Clayton was the fastest woman of the night finishing safely in the chasing bunch.

Result
1 Ben Joughin (Pro Vision RT)
2 David Griffiths (Mammoth Lifestyle RT)
3 Ben Manfield (Morvelo Basso RT)
4 Chris Pook (Rhino Velo RT)
5 William Fotheringham (Halesowen A&CC)
6 Danny Smith (Mammoth Lifestyle RT)
7 Kirk Vickers (Rhino Velo RT)
8 Jason Mayer (Stourbridge Velo)
9 Matthew Garthwaite (Rhino Velo RT)
10 Chris Bragg (Stourbridge Velo)

Woman: Steph Clayton (Mammoth Lifestyle RT)

2016_ShuttVeloRapideAdvert

 

AlpsCyclesMidstory

 

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

Cero

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

Tags: ,