Published: 22 July 2009
A warm evening greeted a sizeable field for the last derny event of the season and with a short 10 lap Scratch race as a warm up saw a clean sweep of the categories from Newbury CC's team mates, A's rider Ian Greenstreet riding clear to win alone, and Donal Linehan the best placed B rider in the bunch sprint.
Then came the heats for the Derny racing which saw all of the favourites from each category qualify comfortably.
- Cameron Swarbrick, with Pacer George Gilbert, on his way to a Championship victory in the B's Derny Final
- Photograph courtesy of swarbrick.com
The Final of the B Category was the closest competition of the evening as B's rider Cameron Swarbrick held a slender lead over Frazier Carr prior to this evening.
The race started at a furious pace and starting near the rear of the field, Swarbrick had to make up places quickly with pacer George Gilbert using his experience to close down the gaps efficiently. Swarbrick then hit the front with a lap to go and blasted away from the field to win and secure the Derny title for the season, as well as consolidate his lead in the overall B competition. Not bad for an Under 16 rider.
The Senior A's final was much of a repeat from 3 weeks ago where local rider Matt Gittings dominated the final winning by almost half a lap. This is great preparation for Gittings and Pacer George Gilbert for the National Championships being held in August in Newport, South Wales.
AW Cycles 10km Endurance Race, half the normal distance due to the Derny racing taking a fair bit of time, but it seems the shorter races give everyone a chance of glory as the race attacks are non stop from the gun. Big efforts from Neil Cooper and father Paul, followed soon after by Nick English had the field strung out in single file and with the laps counting down it was now or never for some riders. Rob King had a dig off the front and was closely marked by Stephen Bradbury, but this was nullified by the chasing pack as the lap board read three to go. Dave Sinclair made the next big effort and gained a gap of 120 metres and he had his head down, focussing on the effort and not the chasers, which was a good tactic as the field stalled. Many riders preferring not to use too much in case there was a sprint. This played into Sinclairs' hands as he powered away with the final lap bell ringing in his ears. A last ditch effort by Greenstreet almost made it but he was a few bike lengths short of a victorious Sinclair.