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Windsor Wins York · 26/07/10
photos by Larry Hickmott
The latest round of the British Cycling Elite Circuit Race series took place in York on Sunday afternoon. Rapha Condor Sharp fielded a seven man squad including Dean Windsor, Dean Downing, Kristian House, Jon Tiernan Locke, Ben Greenwood, Matt Cronshaw, Graham Briggs and Chris Newton all lining up to see if they could close the gap on long time series leader, Ian Wilkinson, who was absent. Most likely to stand between the team and their objective was newly crowned National Criterium Champ, Ed Clancy, who made his second outing in his new colours having already won in the National Champs jersey in Blackburn last Wednesday.
Early skirmishes were quickly neutralised as the field found their lines on the greasy cobbled course and whilst none were able to establish a gap at the front, there were plenty at the back of the field as more than a dozen riders were tailed off during the opening laps of the race.
With a quarter of the race gone a group of three eventually established a small lead as Dean Windsor joined forces with Andy Magnier and Pete Williams to form a leading trio who would go on to shape the race.
At the first sprint of the race the lead trio barely broke rhythm, Magnier took first place more by chance than through any formal sprint. Behind them the bunch began to fire into life as a number of riders sought to bridge up to the break. Those efforts came to nothing until with 27 laps to go, four riders achieved a small gap over the main field; Jonny McEvoy and Malcolm Elliott of Motorpoint closely followed by House and Briggs of Rapha Condor Sharp. Sensing the danger the bunch quickly neutralised their efforts.
At 24 laps to go Pete Williams attacked the lead trio, quickly establishing a small lead of around 7 seconds, it was unclear at this stage whether his breakaway companions were unwilling or unable to shut him down. Meanwhile in the main field a flurry of action culminated in an attack by Dave Clarke of Pendragon, one of a number of riders to try a counter attack. However with the teams of the breakaway well represented in the main bunch, no rider was allowed to gain much advantage and as the second sprint of the night approached it was much the same situation as at the first, three leaders, one bunch to chase and valuable series points slipping away if Downing or Briggs, the best placed Rapha Condor Sharp riders, were to make any meaningful dent in the series lead of Wilkinson.
At the second sprint Williams continued to maintain a gap over the chasing pair of Magnier and Windsor leading his former companions by 7 seconds and the bunch by 28 as Jeff de Bruin of the Kuota team led the peloton across the line.
The sprint lap appeared to reinvigorate the chasing pair of Windsor and Magnier and the gap to Williams began to tumble, behind them Dean Downing had attacked the bunch alone and been caught, setting off a flurry of attacks that culminated in Kristian House establishing a small gap on the field.
House bridged to Williams with 10 to go but the bunch were already on their tail and John Herety signaled from the pits that it was time to sit up lest the two leaders get caught. So with two left in front on a drying course it was still all to play for as far as the bunch were concerned and play for it they did.
With six to go Evan Oliphant attacked from the main field, countered by Ed Calncy and the gap to the leading pair tumbled to 15 seconds. John Herety standing in the pits indicating to Windsor that the gap was coming down, but with no opportunity now to influence the outcome directly.
As the bunch rattled through with four to go Oliphant had been caught and only 7 seconds separated the leading duo from a main bunch that was being driven by Ed Clancy, resplendent in his new national champs jersey. That gap stayed constant as they passed through three to go and for a moment it seemed it might just be possible for them to stay clear. All the team in the pits could do was sit, wait and encourage.
With one to go the gap not only remained, but had grown to 12 seconds as Rapha Condor Sharp riders swarmed all over the front of the field to help discourage any meaningful chase. It would come down to two riders to decide the result and on a course with such a short finishing straight, it would most likely be the first rider through the final bend who would take the victory.
Much to the relief of the assembled team in the pits, that rider was Dean Windsor holding off a charging main field from which the other Dean, AKA Deano, took the spoils. As with Blackburn during the previous week, two Rapha Condor Sharp riders stood on the podium, this time however the number one spot was fortunately occupied on a great day of racing by the team.
Speaking after the race I asked The Duke how he’d turned his luck around after a series of near misses over recent weeks:
“Well, every race I’ve done so far I’ve always attacked right at the start so I thought I’d change my plan a little bit and leave it a couple of laps, I saw a good opportunity after about 5 laps and it was a good combination, we worked quite well until John (Herety) decided I had to split it up a bit. But at the first attempt to do that Pete Williams countered me and got away, but that actually made things easy for me, we just let him hang out there until he blew.”
Coming into the final few laps, life in the pits had been a slightly tense affair, I asked Dean if he’d been confident they could stay away out in the break:
“About 5 laps to go it started getting close and I thought ‘this isn’t good’, I told Andrew (Magnier) we’ve got to really commit here, he said ‘let’s give it everything’, we worked really well to the last lap and I just had the better of him in the last corner, it’s a nice victory.”
With one round of the series still to go it’s still mathematically possible for Dean Downing to clinch the series, however, before that there’s the small matter of the final round of the Premier Calendar to settle with the Richmond Grand Prix guaranteed to see Chris Newton crowned as overall winner. Can the team wrap up the series with another win though?
