,

Russell retakes series lead but can’t take full advantage as the chasing pack close the gap

Gadd takes a classy win as Johnston bolsters her overall advantage

It wasn’t in the most auspicious style, but John Russell (Bristol RC) survived a crash and a feisty finale to place high enough to take crucial series points and retake the series lead from Charlie Revell (Team Tor 2000 Kalas) by five points. Will Page improved on two third placed finishes earlier in the series to take the win ahead of David Mixell (Bikestrong-KTM) which was also his best result of the series so far. Both these riders now climb up the overall standings into 3rd and 4th respectively, hinting at a potential challenge for the top spots over the final few rounds.

Conditions were tough, with a misty rain and strong winds meaning that there was little mercy for riders outside the main group. The prospects of another successful breakaway after James Phillips’ win last week were dealt a further blow when a strong move featuring Russell, his teammate Andrew Edwards, Jack Salvidge (BPF Cycling) and Rob Hardyman (Forever Pedalling) was thwarted by a bizarre crash. Seemingly caught by a gust of wind, the riders overshot the fast right-hander and ended up on the grass. Russell was the only rider to come down, and fortunately all four riders were able to recover their way back to the main group.

Edwards had waited to pace Russell back to the group after the crash and in the confusion following, it was Tom Grigson (Bikestrong-KTM) who had forged ahead. However, riding alone in the wind meant that the bunch never really looked troubled and a sprint was inevitable. Behind Page and Mixell, Tim Southcombe (Somerset Road Club) continued the trend of riders seeing their placings improve as the series has gone on. He was third place, bettering his previous best finish of 8th and moving him into the top ten overall.

The wind also played a pivotal role in the women’s race. With the smaller groups in the pursuit format, there was nowhere to hide as echelons formed time and time again coming up the finish straight. The 2nd/3rd cat group split in their pursuit of the 4th cats, opening the door for some of the lower category riders to snipe a highly placed finish. Lucy Gadd (Liv-Halo CC) was the pre-race favourite coming off an impressive final season as an U16, and tested the main group a number of times early on. However, it was last week’s winner Illi Gardner (Veloflow) who again triggered the decisive split.

She charged clear with Gadd and series leader Johnston (Avid Sport) with Rebekah Nash (Uni of Bristol) and Stephie Prince (Cotswold Veldrijden) just a handful of seconds behind. Prince was backing up her win in the 4th cat race brilliantly by sticking in the mix with the leaders as she and Nash held the front three close throughout the final laps. Gadd wasn’t waiting around for a sprint though and jumped clear going into the closing kilometres. Gardner wasn’t letting her away easily though and set about trying to reel the young rider back in. With Nash and Prince still just off the front group, there was still the chance that it could all come back together in time for a sprint finish with only a handful of second covering the top five.

But Gadd would not be denied, holding on to take the win by a single second from Gardner who herself had managed to put one second into Johnston, who had ridden a canny race on what she described as an “off day”. Prince finished nine seconds further back, two seconds clear of Nash who again paid for perhaps spending too much time working to the benefit of others.
With her third place, Johnston takes her lead out to 76 points ahead of Jenny Bolsom (9th – Bikechain-Ricci) and a further 9 points to Nash who climbs up to third overall. Strong results in the past two rounds from Gardner and Prince have moved them both up the standings to 7th and 8th overall. With four rounds still to go, they are well within reach of the podium spots.

The men’s 4th cat race was also defined by the wind, which made life very difficult for those towards the back of the group and discouraged any riders from making a bid forwards for a breakaway. Nevertheless, with the front group reduced to 13 riders by the finish, nobody scored points without earning them. Steve Beal (Royal Dean Forest CC) took the win by less than half a wheel from Bath CC’s Elliot Barratt. The pair were well clear of William Hayes (UK Biking) who had himself put quite a gap to the rest of the sprint.

Barratt is the best placed of those riders overall in 16th place, and he will be looking to build on that position as he moves up to 3rd category. Hayes is only a few points behind but is down in 30th overall in a very tightly packed fight for a top 15 spot, with 27 riders covered by only 30 points with four rounds remaining.

Photos: Jon Curle and Emily Hogge

Round Six results:

Women’s E/1/2/3:

Position Number First Name Surname
1 4 Lucy Gadd
2 5 Illi Gardner
3 7 Lauren Johnston
4 11 Stephie Prince
5 8 Rebekah Nash
6 13 Elinor Spencer
7 6 Claire Hofmann
8 12 Emily Slavin
9 15 Jenny Bolsom
10 9 Laura Pittard
11 1 Charlotte Brass
12 2 Jo Edwards
13 3 Laura Fenwick
DNF 14 Karen Spiteri

Men’s 4th Cat:

Position Number First Name Surname
1 3 Steve Beal
2 29 Elliott Barratt
3 101 William Hayes
4 4 Simon Bishop
5 1 Marlin Barea
6 7 Will Clarke
7 8 Steven Curran
8 5 Theo Brumhead
9 27 Paul Culmstock
10 2 Nicholas Barks
11 28 Luke Tregidgo
12 10 Mark Hardyman
13 15 Jonathan Oakey
14 17 Wayne Reeks
15 25 Winfield Harvey
16 9 George Edwards
17 53 Andrew Kennard
18 102 Alex Joy
19 6 Nigel Burton
20 23 Peter Geaves
21 16 Thomas Parsons
22 26 Mark Reed
DNF 18 Daniel Riggs
DNF 19 Peter Smith
DNF 20 Guy Tucker
DNF 22 Craig Buffry
DNF 24 Robert McEwan

Men’s 2/3:

Position Number First Name Surname
1 15 Will Page
2 14 David Mixell
3 23 Tim Southcombe
4 16 Joe Peatson
5 107 Wil Perrin
6 12 Rob Hardyman
7 26 Steven Whitehurst
8 32 Thomas Bass
9 1 Jamie Atkins
10 22 Jack Salvidge
11 31 Daniel Carr
12 2 Jamie Bray
13 29 John Russell
14 7 Steve Cottington
15 9 Andrew Edwards
16 4 Liam Cahill
17 101 Samuel Gaskin
18 18 James Pittard
19 30 Tom Grigson
20 28 Harry Tucker
21 25 David Stoyle
22 5 Harry Chamberlain
23 10 Richard Franklin
24 27 Felix Young
25 13 Andrew Lockwood
26 24 David Spreadbridge
27 21 Graeme Rout

Overall Series Standings:

Women:

First Name Surname Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Total
Lauren Johnston 30 50 30 50 45 40 245
Jenny Bolsom 50 15 40 25 25 14 169
Rebekah Nash 25 45 25 35 30 160
Molly Hodges 15 35 20 45 20 135
Maria Powell 45 35 30 110
Emily Slavin 13 45 30 15 103
Illi Gardner 50 45 95
Stephie Prince 25 1 30 35 91
Elizabeth Pressage 20 50 70
Elinor Spencer 40 25 65
Frances Bromley 20 40 60
Lucy Gadd 50 50
Emily Walton 8 35 43
Charlotte Berry 40 40
Karen Spiteri 15 15 9 39
Aimee Parsons 8 5 25 38
Katherine Moore 9 15 13 37
Lucy Austin 30 30
Kate Millard 3 6 20 29
Olive Holliday 6 20 26
Joanna Goodhead 5 2 15 22
Clare Hofmann 20 20
Sophie Barnes 9 8 17
Deborah Sterling 1 14 15
Rebecca Gregson 14 14
Laura Pittard 13 13
Vanessa Royals 12 12
Charlotte Brass 12 12
Jo Edwards 11 11
Claire Lawrence 10 10
Claire Nott 10 10
Amy Dunwell 10 10
Laura Fenwick 10 10
Georgie Little 9 9
Sally Crocker 4 4 8
Janet Horton 7 7
Heidi Blunden 7 7
Sorrel Williams 7 7
Taegan Pomeroy 3 3
Victoria Jones 2 2
Sarah Crowther 1 1 2
Hannah Cockerill 1 1
Emily Harford 1 1
Janet Horton 1 1

Men:

First Name Surname Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Total
John Russell 50 45 45 35 10 185
Charlie Revell 50 50 50 30 180
Will Page 40 40 15 50 145
David Mixell 40 20 35 45 140
Andrew White 30 30 45 25 130
Rob Hardyman 15 35 14 20 25 109
Jared Linden 30 25 30 85
Jamie Atkins 25 20 25 1 14 85
Tim Southcombe 15 15 12 40 82
Will Perrin 40 1 10 30 81
Edward Gray 20 7 15 30 72
Jack Salvidge 14 30 11 13 68
Thomas Bass 20 14 11 4 2 15 66
Daniel Martin 30 25 8 63
James Phillips 50 50
Elliot Barratt 8 2 15 25 50
James Dudden 35 13 48
Scott Fryer 35 6 7 48
Ben Osborne 20 25 1 46
Joe Peatson 11 35 46
Joe Twelvetrees 25 20 45
Nathan Hallett 45 45
Colin Smith 25 20 45
Tavis Walker 45 45
Seb Bernaert 20 20 40
Steve Brown 15 25 40
Corey Bale 40 40
Samuel Gaskin 14 9 9 1 1 6 40
Spencer Hardman 6 15 8 9 1 39
William Hayes 10 8 20 38
Steven Cottington 13 8 1 1 5 9 37
Steven Whitehurst 14 20 34
Steve Beal 1 30 31
Thomas Collins 30 30
Kyle Dovey 30 30
Jamie Bray 12 6 11 29
Iain Duggan 25 1 1 27
Liam Cahill 5 13 7 25
Daniel Carr 13 12 25
William Acworth 10 5 7 22
Adam Robertson 13 7 20
Josh Griffiths 9 8 1 1 19
Alex Ficke 9 10 19
Steven Curran 3 8 8 19
Simon Bishop 4 15 19
Daniel Riggs 1 1 1 5 9 1 18
Will Clarke 8 1 9 18
Richard Smith 8 3 6 17
Anthony Corke 15 1 1 17
Simon Starling 15 15
Peter Smith 1 1 6 7 15
Adrian Reynolds 12 1 1 1 15
Tom Allport 9 4 1 14
Thomas Grigson 10 4 14
Marlin Barea 4 10 14
Nick Anderson 12 12
Daniel Soltys 11 1 12
Julian Lockwood 12 12
Felix Young 11 1 12
George Creasey 10 10
Daniel Tyrie 9 1 10
Johnny Arcg 5 5 10
Steve Martin 10 10
George Bazeley 10 10
James McGough 10 10
Thomas Barlow 10 10
Theo Brumhead 3 7 10
Daniel Maclean-Howell 9 9
Christopher Hill 9 9
Stefan Barnett 4 3 1 8
Jamie Crump 8 8
Noel Charlton 3 5 8
Tom Moffat 1 7 8
Guy Tucker 7 1 8
Graeme Rout 6 1 1 8
Mark Hardyman 1 3 1 3 8
Andrew Edwards 8 8
Luke Churchus 7 7
Edward Jackson 7 7
Phil Walter 7 7
Joel Thomas 6 6
Ian Hicks 6 6
Thomas Southey 5 1 6
Christopher Wright 6 6
Chris Downham 6 6
Nicholas Barks 1 5 6
James Pittard 1 5 6
Paul Culmstock 6 6
Dave Cullen 5 5
Si Potter 4 1 5
Thomas Price 1 4 5
Harry Tucker 1 1 3 5
Andy Butler 4 4
John Carter 4 4
Jonathan Oakley 3 1 4
Adrian Warren 3 1 4
Benjamin Wainwright 1 3 4
Nigel Burton 1 1 1 1 4
Graham Townsend 1 2 3
James Kay 2 1 3
Matthew Skeats 1 1 1 3
Chris Brennan 2 1 3
Paul Ashman 1 2 3
Richard Franklin 1 1 1 3
Mark Reed 1 1 1 3
Luke Tregidgo 3 3
David Gwynne 1 1 2
Jonathan Ashby 1 1 2
Luke Craddock 2 2
Charlie Kelly 1 1 2
Rowan Ellis 2 2
Alexander Atkins 1 1 2
Tom Turner 2 2
Michael Parkin-White 1 1 2
James Saunders 1 1 2
Jacques Coates 1 1 2
Thomas Harrington 1 1 2
George Beck 1 1 2
Peter Geaves 1 1 2
Thomas Parsons 1 1 2
Jonathan Oakey 2 2
David Stoyle 2 2
Martin Andrews 1 1
Jack Enright 1 1
Jeremy Bigg 1 1
Alan Adams 1 1
Paul Watkins 1 1
Joanathan Ashby 1 1
Chris Parry 1 1
Michael Banfield 1 1
Alex Williams 1 1
Joel Thomas 1 1
James Barber 1 1
Saxon Ridley 1 1
Dareen Hayter 1 1
Jason Holder 1 1
Christopher Chapman 1 1
Robert McEwen 1 1
Charlie Peach 1 1
Hamilton Palmer 1 1
Tom Coombe 1 1
Luke Rogers 1 1
Thomas King 1 1
Alex Faux 1 1
Robert Francis 1 1
Jordan Wintle 1 1
Sam Whitehead 1 1
Ross Mahoney 1 1
Luke Justin 1 1
Chris Deane 1 1
Andy Duggan 1 1
Harvey Winfield 1 1
Joe Colley 1 1
Rhys Flint 1 1
Andrew Kirby 1 1
Peter Burrows 1 1
David Pleming 1 1
Wayne Reeks 1 1
Winfield Harvey 1 1
George Edwards 1 1
Andrew Kennard 1 1
Alex Joy 1 1
Peter Smith 1 1
Craig Buffry 1 1
Robert McEwan 1 1
Harry Chamberlain 1 1
Andrew Lockwood 1 1
David Spreadbridge 1 1
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