The race covered around 72 miles of lumpy and often quite bumpy East Sussex roads, with the riders completing 10 laps of the Ladies Mile circuit before transitioning to the much tougher Crowborough circuit for five laps. Riders were alerted to the large number of large potholes on the course during the briefing and all riders got round safely.
Riders were led through the neutralised zone at around 11:00 and onto the first lap of the day. A group of four riders including Joe Hill (Embark Spirit BSS), Sebastian Garry (Kalas Motip Race Team), Michael Weavers (Lewes Wanderers CC) and Dylan Humber-Kelly (Private) formed an early break on the second lap of Ladies Mile and built up a lead of around 50 seconds by the third lap, but this was quickly shut down by the main group with all riders back together by the fifth lap.
The high pace on these early laps told as riders started to gradually drop off the back by lap six, with this attrition claiming a few more riders with each lap and whittling down the original 60-plus starters.
By lap seven there was a new break of five riders comprising Josh Housley (Derby CC Webuycycle Huub RT), Joshua Avery (Ride Revolution Coaching), George Peden (Team PB Performance), Danylo Riwnyj (trainSharp Elite), and Jack Crook (Richardsons Trek DAS), closely followed by a group of four chasers for a couple of laps as a gap back to the peloton began to solidify.
A high pace and good cooperation in the front and chasing groups on the Ladies Mile circuit was evident as the peloton slipped further while Sebastian Garry, Cai Davies (Kalas Motip Race Team), Nicholas Tyrie (Primera-TeamJobs), and Dylan Humber-Kelly made contact with the leaders to form a group of nine with a gap of 1:30 to another four chasers and 2:30 back to the ever-thinning peloton by the time riders completed the final Ladies Mile circuit.
Somewhat predictably, the first ascent of the 2.3 km climb up Marden’s Hill and St John’s Road leading into Crowborough created chaos throughout the race as the irregular gradient of the climb took its toll, especially for those who overcooked it on the Ladies Mile circuit laps. Despite the gap of nearly three minutes, two groups of four then two riders left the peloton in the hope of reeling in the break of nine riders, with one of those six being Alex Richardson.
After around two and a half hours of hard racing and the lead group of nine becoming seven, the chasing groups were making steady progress to reduce the deficit as it became clear the race was far from over as riders tackled the third Crowborough lap. It was around this point in the race that Alex Richardson really put the hammer down to join the front group before quickly setting off out front on his own on the penultimate lap, with no other riders able to stick with him, leaving him free to cross the finish line with arms aloft.
Alex Richardson (Saint Piran) won a National B road race for the second successive weekend with victory at the BEC CC road race on Sunday 7 May.
Featured image: Dave Hayward
Report
The race covered around 72 miles of lumpy and often quite bumpy East Sussex roads, with the riders completing 10 laps of the Ladies Mile circuit before transitioning to the much tougher Crowborough circuit for five laps. Riders were alerted to the large number of large potholes on the course during the briefing and all riders got round safely.
Riders were led through the neutralised zone at around 11:00 and onto the first lap of the day. A group of four riders including Joe Hill (Embark Spirit BSS), Sebastian Garry (Kalas Motip Race Team), Michael Weavers (Lewes Wanderers CC) and Dylan Humber-Kelly (Private) formed an early break on the second lap of Ladies Mile and built up a lead of around 50 seconds by the third lap, but this was quickly shut down by the main group with all riders back together by the fifth lap.
The high pace on these early laps told as riders started to gradually drop off the back by lap six, with this attrition claiming a few more riders with each lap and whittling down the original 60-plus starters.
By lap seven there was a new break of five riders comprising Josh Housley (Derby CC Webuycycle Huub RT), Joshua Avery (Ride Revolution Coaching), George Peden (Team PB Performance), Danylo Riwnyj (trainSharp Elite), and Jack Crook (Richardsons Trek DAS), closely followed by a group of four chasers for a couple of laps as a gap back to the peloton began to solidify.
A high pace and good cooperation in the front and chasing groups on the Ladies Mile circuit was evident as the peloton slipped further while Sebastian Garry, Cai Davies (Kalas Motip Race Team), Nicholas Tyrie (Primera-TeamJobs), and Dylan Humber-Kelly made contact with the leaders to form a group of nine with a gap of 1:30 to another four chasers and 2:30 back to the ever-thinning peloton by the time riders completed the final Ladies Mile circuit.
Somewhat predictably, the first ascent of the 2.3 km climb up Marden’s Hill and St John’s Road leading into Crowborough created chaos throughout the race as the irregular gradient of the climb took its toll, especially for those who overcooked it on the Ladies Mile circuit laps. Despite the gap of nearly three minutes, two groups of four then two riders left the peloton in the hope of reeling in the break of nine riders, with one of those six being Alex Richardson.
After around two and a half hours of hard racing and the lead group of nine becoming seven, the chasing groups were making steady progress to reduce the deficit as it became clear the race was far from over as riders tackled the third Crowborough lap. It was around this point in the race that Alex Richardson really put the hammer down to join the front group before quickly setting off out front on his own on the penultimate lap, with no other riders able to stick with him, leaving him free to cross the finish line with arms aloft.
In the sprint finish for second, Nicholas Tyrie edged out Sebastian Garry, followed by Dylan Humber-Kelly in fourth.
The remainder of the prize-winning places were rounded out by Josh Housley, Jack Crook, Danylo Riwnyj and Harry Macfarlane (TAAP Endura).
With thanks to Bec CC for drafting the race report.
Results
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