Jul 4, 2012
Fraddon Grand Prix
With what was to see the return of elite racing to Cornwall for the first time in five years, this Sunday saw the National B road race at Fraddon promoted by Newquay Velo and organized by David Wring taking place.
The race comprised of ten laps of what I had been lead to believe was a ‘rolling’ course that I thought would suit my strengths when it comes to racing. This was sadly not the case when we came to drive the course before signing on. The only thing going through my head was “this seems to be an awful lot of climbing for a ‘rolling’ course”. The race rolled out of Fraddon Village Hall down over a couple of roundabouts and on to the course. The course started with a long flat/descent which was home to the finish line, with the cross tail wind it would be great for a sprinter that could get them selves over the climbs to come. Come to the end of the finish straight and you hit a left-hander at a roundabout straight into a short steep climb followed by a slight descent. The next and main climb started with a tailwind climb that lead into a hard left, false flat then a climb with a steeper section two thirds of the way up, rolling over the top into the rolling descent back to the start-finish line.
The first move of the race was with MDCC’s own strong man Pete Vincent and An Post – Sean Kelly rider John Mould. This move was to stay away for three laps before being pulled back by the bunch. The move that stuck was Wilier rider Tavis Walker going on one of his signature lone attacks and riding off as the bunch messed about with who was actually going to chase and Tavis’ teammates doing a good job of breaking up any attempt at closing their man down.
My race didn’t go exactly as planned with me being dropped three times on the climb and having to chase back on the descent. The final time I was dropped good and proper was whilst Pete was chasing a little move with my teammate James Williams, Wilier rider Tom Marshall and Junior Heffernan. The rest of my race consisted of me riding through and off with Newquay Velo rider Mark Barlow who put in an exceptional ride on the day and was the first placed local rider of the promoting club.
All in despite my day not going to plan it was a good race and I hope the course can be used in future promotions in Cornwall. I would like to thank David for all his hard work that he put into today, along with the marshals who helped make it a safe race for all of those that entered.
Recent Comments