Published: 5 June 2007
Plenty of action at the AW Cycles track league on Monday with several new faces to throw into the mix, including Felt RC's Ian Holt and Ian Cooper from VC St Raphael, plus Team Luciano's Hannah Bussey (who was giving track a go for the first time).
The juniors had their usual flurry of early races too, with regular winners Stephen Bradbury, Daniel Maslin and Matt Gittings taking wins in the Devil and Sprint competitions whilst Harriett Owen also completed this double in the Under 16 Girls category.
In the 10 lap Scratch race it was Sam Grant who finished strongest in his category, with Bradbury and Maslin continuing their winning form.
Martin Dawkins & John Paul took their first wins of the evening in the 4 lap Hare & Hounds with Daniel Maslin completing a clean sweep of his events for the evening.
Maslin is the countries top performing Under 12 year old and shows this week in-week out at the track league as well as at the National Youth Omnium series.
The seniors were finally let out on the track for the lung and leg opening 10 lap Hare & Hounds and with a couple of very strong B riders (who start half a lap up - hence Hare & Hounds) setting a scorching pace, many riders who weren't quite ready for the manic start were quickly blown out the back but the B's were finally caught with 4 laps to go and it was Roger Woodford who pipped Ian Holt to take the victory, with Lara Wann the best placed lady.
The Derny heats begun a long slow process of weeding out the wheat from the chaff, with 3 heats of A's, 3 heats of B's and 2 heats of ladies, with a single final for the Under 16 boys. The Under 16's Derny final produced a fast race with Sam Grant taking the victory with Stephen Bradbury second and Martin Dawkins third.
With the juniors finished for the evening, and it getting late, it was down to the Derny finals with the A's blasting round, I was told, at over 38 mph and it was this high speed that only one rider was able to maintain and that was Ian Holt. Ian has been a regular visitor to the track league, sadly breaking his collarbone a few years ago in a high speed crash, but coming back to super form this year. Second and third placings came down to the wire with Ian Greenstreet finishing with an almighty flurry but missing out on second by a bike length from Ian Cooper.
The B's Derny race proved to be a more cut and dried affair with Ex-GB Olympic rower convert John Warnock showing that he has the same determination to do well on a bicycle winning very comfortably from Trevor Bradbury and Robert King.
It is interesting to note how many Ex world class rowers have converted extremely well to cycling. Names like GB track pursuiter Rebecca Romero, Premier calendar podium man Matt Talbot and local track league rider and ex-GB rower Tim Bedingfield to name just a few. Keep an eye out for other names like Blackman and Richmond in the womens results as well as the aformentioned John Warnock in the mens.
The Womens Derny race came down to experience versus power, with Lara Wann showing that many seasons of training behind a derny at pace has helped her sit comfortably inches from the rear fender whilst the fast finishing sprinting powerhouse in Janet Birkmyre who has spent but a few short hours behind the "motors" was no match for Wann. But Birkmyre is improving quickly and may be a surprise at the National Derny champs in a few weeks time.
To the last event of the evening, The AW Cycles 20km endurance race, which was shortened to 22 laps due to time constraints but proved to be very fast and highly entertaining with Toby Meadows trying numerous times early on to escape the large field and at times had help from an attentive Chris Legg who was very active when moves went away.
The bunch was finally blown apart with 10 laps to go when Marc Wilmot slid underneath the field and escaped with Richard Prince for company. This set alarm bells ringing in the bunch and small groups set off in pursuit.
First to make contact was Ian Holt and Ian Cooper, with another group including Ian Greenstreet, Michael Wilmot, Roger Woodford and Toby Meadows not far behind. As the Greenstreet group made contact so did the final pair to make contact, Luke Merrilees and David Jack.
It was this group of 10 which contested the last few laps but no one tried to escape until the last lap where Jack wound up the gear and came round the outside on the penultimate bend to gain a gap of 20-30 metres which he held until the last bend where the fast finishing speedster Ian Holt overhauled him and maintained his pace all the way to the line and winning, followed in by Prince and Greenstreet.
Note
Remember the 24th of June is the Palmer Park track league special Bordeaux -Paris Derny / open track meet. Entries on the line available.