A battle at the Lincoln GP.

James Whatling had his first taste of Premier Calendar action at the Lincoln GP on Sunday, and although the pace, the parcours and the conditions made it a battle from start to finish, he came away from it loving the experience.

Although the day started with clear skies, as the riders warmed up, the rain started and there was very little let up for the whole race. There was also very lttle let up in the pace, with the whole field going hard from the gun to make sure of a good position for the first ascent of Michaelgate's 1 in 7 cobbles. With crashes, punctures and dropped riders on the first lap, James tried to stay as far up the field as possible but when the field split on a headwind section, he was on the wrong side of it and found himself in the chasing group. Although a lack of brakes on the fast downhill section made for a scary and unpredictable descent, James found he quite (perversely!!) liked the cobbled climb and settled into the group containing riders of the calibre of Kevin Dawson (Pinarello RT) and Mark Lovatt (Sportscover/Planet X).

As the front group splintered with many of the big guns of the race pulling away, the main peloton chased hard behind, followed by James' group, trying desperately to pull themselves back into the race. It was to no avail though and with three laps to go, to allow the traffic to get past between laps and for the overall management of the race, James' group was pulled out of the race. James raced as far as he was able to, and would have finished a Premier Calendar race at the first attempt, which was as good a result as he could have wished for.

Dean Downing got the result of his dreams by winning the race and showed his joy by breaking down in tears at the finish, a worthy winner of a monument of British Cycling.

Thanks to Ian Emmerson, the race organiser, Lincoln City Council, Larry Hickmott/British Cycling for the picture and all involved in such a fantastic event.

Result:
1.) Downing, Dean: Rapha/Condor
2.) McCauley, Gordon: PCA/Evans Cycles
3.) Downing, Russell: Healthnet
4.) Newton, Chris: Recycling.co.uk
5.) Dayus, Jonathan: Arctic Shorter Rochford
6.) McDonald, Peter: FRF Couriers
7.) Wilkinson, Ian: SIS/Trek
8.) Talbot, Matt: Rapha/Condor
9.) Hayles, Rob: Team KLR
10.) Dowsett, Alex: 100% ME