GWR Team

GWR Team formed in January 2006. The team finished their first year as the top team in the South and ranked 9th nationally. GWR Team had another impressive year in 2007 finishing 12th nationally. They have taken 46 victories in the past two years and achieved over 200 top five placings.

Saturday 10th May

Peter Dibben, Sam and Llewellyn rode the two stage race, based on roads east of Winchester, where 55 riders faced an opening 6.5km hilly time trial followed by a 110km road race. Stage ones’s hilly time trial, saw Peter finish 5th, 20 seconds down on the leader, Llewelyn was 10^th and Sam 17th. Stage two’s road race split after the first of the intermediate sprints. Sam, despite being unwell, made it into a strong move with two riders and achieved a maximum lead of 45 seconds. After riding clear for 20 km the trio were brought back. This lead to a series of attacks with one lone rider going clear, who built a lead of 1 min. Peter and Llewellyn, setting the pace, brought the pelaton back with 5km to go while Sam finally succumbed to his illness and withdrew. Peter launched an attack with 2km to go and he quickly gained a small advantage while Llewelyn controlled the bunch. Peter continued to drill it to the finish, and took a marvellous solo victory, 11 secs clear of the main bunch. Llewellyn took the sprint to ensure an excellent 1-2 for the team. The final overall classification showed that Pete had done enough to take overall victory, with Llewelyn 6th.

Sunday 1st June
Peter and Sam dominated the Junior race with over 7 mins to their nearest rival at the end for a superb 1,2 for the first championship jersey for the GWR Team in 2008. In the senior event Llewellyn Kinch, Jon Pain and Nic Tilling made the lead group of 12, with the group splitting on the final lap Jon finished 10 seconds behind the winner for 4th and Llewellyn 30 sec behind for 7th and Nic 21st.

Wednesday 2^nd July
Competing in the mid-week Portsmouth DH cyclesport league. Sam came out on top after 52kms of the multiple circuit race. Sam attacked the bunch from the gun, going clear with one other rider. Both Sam and his breakaway companion both lap the field, by mid distance. Sam attacked again going clear with five other riders managing to take two laps out of the rest of the field. Sam won the sprint against his fellow breakaway partner, to take his first victory for GWR team. Sam remarked “it’s been a long time coming.” Happy with his exertions, Sam told us he was now looking forward to “travelling to the south of France tomorrow, for two weeks training in the Pyrenees” in an effort to hone his form for the second half of the season.

Monday 30th June
GWR team consisting of Nic Tilling, Llewellyn Kinch, Jon Pain, Peter Kench and Sam Redding entered into the event with over 30 other starters in signing on for the first round. As the flag dropped to begin the race, the attacks soon came, with GWR team’s Sam Redding active early on. After 30mins a three man break containing GWR team riders Nic Tilling, Pete Kench and John Wagner (Felt) going clear from a fast fragmenting Pelaton. Llewellyn Kinch, Sam Redding and Jon Pain policed the remnants of the chasing pack. All three riders covered any counter attack. In the run in to the finish Nic took a fine victory with Peter 2^nd. In the chasing group the remaining GWR team riders finished strongly with Llewellyn 5^th Sam Redding 6^th and Jon Pain 7^th rounding of a dominant performance by the GWR team.

Thursday 31^st July
Peter Dibben competed as part of the South east Select team in the international Assen tour, in the capital of the "Cycling Province" of the Netherlands. The race held over six days included 7 stages of racing, starting with a prologue followed by two criteriums a road stage, time trial and finally a town centre Criterium to bring a close to the stage race. Peter took a superb stage win on the fourth stage, outsprinting his break away companion and putting in 24 second to the bunch. Due to Peters consistency over the six days, he earned fifth place overall, three minutes behind the winner of the race.

Sunday3rd August
Sam and Peter rode the Trofee van Vlaanderen with 122 competitors, on the 120km course. An early split in the race had a break of eight riders went clear from the pelaton with both of the GWR Team riders in it. At mid-distance Peter had to take a wheel change and lost his position in the lead group. Two riders split from the lead break in the closing stages to contest the win. Under the pressure the remaining riders splintered and Sam finished 6th, 27 seconds back from the winner.

Sunday 10th August
The race was over an 80 mile hilly circuit, with all three GWR Team juniors present and in good form Sam, Peter and Sandy were looking to take the race to the quality field for the 2008 edition of the race. An early break of seven riders went clear and with none of the GWR riders present. After two laps Sam Redding was forced to have a bike change and due to the delay in setting up the bike and the difficult weather conditions Sam was put out of contention. The peloton pegged back the lead break to within 30 seconds where Sandy joined the counter attack on the 5th lap to bridge the gap with four riders. Coming in to the closing stages the lead group was now down to nine riders. As the riders took the bell for the final lap eventual winner Erik Roswell attacked the lead group to solo for the win. The chase group splintered under the pressure to chase the leader and coming in to the finish, Sandy crossed the line a fantastic 3rd , only 31 seconds down on the winner on an extremely hard course.