Goodwood Summer Series
Tuesday 22nd May was the sixth round of the the Southdown Velo Goodwood Summer Series. Four Wightlink Wight Mountain Cycle Race Team members travelled over to race the Elite, First and Second category race.
A full field of 60 riders started the race that would last for one hour around the motor racing circuit. Matt Allsopp, Stu Waite and Joe Staunton all worked hard to control the race and not let any other riders break away from the main bunch unless a WLWM rider was involved. The pace was fast at 28mph as riders tried to break away from the main group.
Both Matt and Stu got away but the peloton reeled them back in both times. With three laps to go the pace dropped off and Adam Holleyman attacked with a small group of four others. With the rest of the team marking counter attacks and stalling the chase, the lead of the breakaway group grew.
Coming into the finish, the five lead riders started their own tactical battle with Adam taking second over the line. This was Adam’s best result of the season so far and was all down to the hard work from the rest of the team.
Ashdown Forest
On Saturday 26th May Joe Staunton raced in the Ashdown Forest Support Race. After being caught in a crash two weeks prior, Staunton was keen to race and test himself on a very tough circuit around Ladies Mile in Tunbridge Wells.
Unfortunately disaster struck on the first lap when a rider had a mechanical, half way up the first climb of the course and went down. With nowhere to go, Staunton and a handful of other riders ended up riding over the fallen rider.
Staunton quickly got up, and after assessing that he was not injured, turned his attention to his bike. With his saddle at a right angle, shifters bent inwards and a front wheel that wouldn’t spin straight but gears still functioning Staunton hopped back on and tried to fix the bike as best as possible, whilst initiating a chase back to the main group. Initially with three other riders chasing back to the group Staunton pressed on when they started to falter and made it back to the main bunch safely on his own.
The race was hotly contested over the nine laps of the ladies mile circuit with almost 1000m of climbing. When a rider attacked with 1.5 laps to go before the finish Staunton found himself alone at the front of the group, he decided to try and chase the rider and put a gap of around 30 seconds into the main bunch.
Staunton was still clear of the bunch and sitting in fifth position until 200 metres before the finish line when the main group pushed down the hill to the bottom of the final climb to close the gap and bridge to Staunton. Having ridden 8km solo Staunton didn’t have much left for the finishing sprint and rolled in a respectable 19th position overall.
Report from Russell Thomson on behalf of Wightlink Wight Mountain Cycle Race Ream. Ed
Image: © Eamonn Deane
