Rider News – Clinton 2nd at Circuit Series

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Kenilworth’s Matt Clinton, riding for Mike Vaughan Cycles took 2nd in the 5th round of the CTT National Series this weekend in Reading.

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Rider News – Clinton 2nd at Circuit Series
On the hottest day of the year so far, riders would complete two laps of rolling 15-mile circuit around the leafy Berkshire lanes. Second-to-last man off, with two minutes between each seeded rider, Matt’s biggest challenge would be holding off series leader & multiple National Champion, Matt Bottrill (Drag2Zero.com). In every race this year, Bottrill has won by at least 2 minutes.

The course would be deceptively tough with relatively little flat, the rolling roads were not in the best condition – pothole avoidance was a top priority with riders on their top race machines.  Hitting the first lap hard on his Trek Speed Concept, Clinton held Bottrill for 30s after the first 15 miles.

Perhaps having over-exerted himself, Clinton’s own 2-minute-man came into view giving him extra incentive to keep pushing on. Having faded slightly on lap two, Clinton had still not been caught, crossing the line in a time of 1:09:54. Just over 40s later, Bottrill would cross the line to have put 1:18 into Clinton and taking the win.

Matt Clinton admitted afterwards that his main target of the day was to keep ahead of Bottrill, “if I managed to do that, I knew I’d be on for a good ride. I’d mentally worked out that if he was going to catch me, it would in the last few miles, but I survived!”

Finishing over 2:30 clear of 3rd place, Matt finished in 2nd place and added some more points to his series total. With the CTT series taking in points from 4 rounds out of a possible 6, Matt Bottrill has now won all 4 events he has entered and sealed the series title. The final round will be the National Circuit Championships in September and having one win and two second places, Matt Clinton now stands in good stead to take 2nd overall.

 

 

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