Regional Road Race Championships
23 April 2010
On one of the hottest days of the year so far, British Cycling held their Regional Road Race Championships with nine events across the country, with the GWR Team performing well in both the South and South West championship races.
Doug Dewey was among a strong field for the 84 mile South West race based at Leedstown in West Cornwall. The race kicked off aggressively with a rider attacking very early on and he was soon joined by three others, and this break established a maximum lead of three minutes, but as the race approached half distance, the group had been pulled back by the aggressive peloton. A new move of five riders quickly began to establish itself and Dewey was among them along with two of the race favorites Marcin Bialoblocki Wilier-Big maggies and Steve Lampier Pendragon.
Moving into the final 15 miles this group began to split under the pressure and Dewey, having been recently sidelined with illness, found himself third on the road with two riders ahead. Despite the gap to the two riders ahead, and riding alone, he fought hard to keep his advantage over the chasing riders and held on to cross the line a very satisfied 3rd to claim the bronze medal.
At Upavon in Wiltshire a four man GWR Team were among a 50 strong field contesting the South Championship race over 90 miles. After just four miles Sam Redding attacked to 'wake his legs up' taking five riders with him, and with two of the race favorites Will Bergfelt (wilier) and Phil Sykes (sigma sport) among them he soon realised that this could be the race winning move, as four of the major teams in the race were represented.
One of the major teams who missed the move Felt-corbones team worked hard to close the gap down. At the end of lap two when the gap was still within 30 seconds a group of six moved clear of the peloton and bridged to the leading five riders. As the race entered the final two laps and the lead group had established a lead of over two minutes to the chasing peloton. Nic Tilling and Llewellyn Kinch, remained in the peloton, but repeatedly attacked their group to get a chase going across to the leaders. Unfortunately this was not to be and they had to settle for the sprint for 12th place which Llewellyn duly took, with Nic taking 15th.
Meanwhile with one lap to go a rider from the wilier team attacked to open a 30 second gap on the lead break of 10. This was to allow his second team mate to sit on for the last lap and keep the pace in the lead group high. Coming into the last lap Velo Club Montpelier rider and a second wilier rider bridged up to the lead rider and the three held a 10 second gap to the chasing group. Will Bergfelt won the sprint, to claim the title. Sam Redding came in second in the sprint from the remnants of the lead group to claim an excellent 7th position.
