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Tour Series 2010: Kettering: Kristian House wins · 11/06/10


photo by Joolze Dymond
www.joolzedymond.com

Kristian House outsprinted long-time breakaway companion, Simon Richardson, to take victory in round six of The Halfords Tour Series in Kettering, helping his Rapha – Condor – Sharp squad take their third team win of the 2010 Series. A twisting course through the centre of Kettering saw riders struggle to escape the peloton, partially due to a strong headwind along sections of the course.

House spent the second half of the race up the road having first escaped as part of a larger group. He was latterly joined by Richardson who leapt over the top of the breakaway that House had dispatched a couple of laps earlier in conjunction with Casey Munro. Once the two were away the bunch largely switched off, seemingly content to let the two fight out the victory and strangely allowing the Rapha Condor Sharp quartet who remained in the main bunch to plot their route to a team victory on the night.

The initial breakaway that proved to be the catalyst for House and Richardson’s decisive move escaped midway through the race and just as in Southport, the big three Halfords Tour Series teams were represented. Ian Bibby wore Motorpoint’s orange leader’s jersey, while Rob Partridge represented Endura Racing with House for Rapha – Condor – Sharp. Sigma sport ensured the rest of the peloton had representation, while after a couple of laps Pendragon Le Col Colnago’s Casey Munro crossed the gap to make it a leading quintet. Seeing the danger, the peloton gradually began to ride the leaders down, with Munro and House breaking clear a couple of laps before the catch was made. Richardson seized his opportunity to leapfrog the remnants of the break, reaching and attacking the leading pair and dispatching Munro back to the main field, leaving two in front and eight laps to go.

With the pair away, the peloton seemed to lose interest in their pursuit, the gap swelling to 15 seconds and steadily increasing to such an extent that with two laps to go it was inevitable that either House or Richardson would take the win. Coming into the final lap Richardson led out the sprint, but House came through on the near side to cross the line first and to take his first Halfords Tour Series win.

Behind, the men in black were at the front of the peloton too, with Zak Dempster winning the sprint from Ian Wilkinson and Tony Gibb of Kettering’s home team, CyclePremier.com – Metaltek, just ahead of Southport winner Alexandre Blain.

Briggs crossed the line in eighth as third Rapha – Condor – Sharp rider to help them to the team prize, with victory seeing the outfit move back into second place in The Halfords Tour Series standings, just two points behind Motorpoint – Marshalls Pasta. With four rounds to go and just three points separating the top three outfits, the story of the 2010 Series still has plenty of kilometres to run. Rounding off a great night for the team and for himself personally, Graham Briggs once again won the Boardman Bikes Sprint competition, completing a clean sweep of the night’s awards for Rapha – Condor – Sharp, although the men in black still trail Motorpoint – Marshalls Pasta in The Halfords Tour Series.

Going into the final phase of the Tour Series season, John Herety still refused to see his team as likely contenders for the overall series win in Tour Series:

“I’d expect to see Motorpoint really shutting things down now to be honest. The lead is still theirs to defend and they have plenty of firepower for the coming rounds, I think they’d have to mess up in a pretty spectacular way to lose that and that’s just too embarrassing to think about really. I can’t see it happening.”

To see all the action from Kettering, tune in to ITV4 on Friday evening at 7pm for an hour’s highlights show. The Halfords Tour Series is back in action on Tuesday in Peterborough for Round Seven of the 2010 Series.

www.tourseries.co.uk »

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