Horses on courses at the Southern Counties Road Race Championship

Author: Dan Patten

There was a fairly rapid start to the Southern Counties Road Race, held at Ockley in Surrey. The attacks were fast and furious, with many riders trying their luck on the first lap only to get brought back by the fast moving, strung out peloton. Our own Dan Kogan, keen as ever to race, was one of these riders who was aggressive early in the proceedings but at that stage the bunch were too attentive to let anyone escape.

Approaching the end of the first lap I began to make my way towards the front of the peloton. On doing so I found myself on the wheel of Toby Neave (Southdown Velo). Knowing Toby's attacking style of racing I sensed he was about to go and, sure enough, as we neared the front of the peloton he went and I immediately followed in his wheel. After a couple of hundred metres I took a look back and saw we were away. We worked well together and were out for the best part of a lap before being joined by a chase group. Surprisingly there were no Plowman Craven riders in this chase group and when the other riders made the junction we knew we would have to work hard to pull out the gap...that we did. We were a hard working group containing the likes of myself and Toby, Jon Tiernan Locke (Mid Devon CC), Roy Chamberlain (Team Corley Cycles), Wouter Sybrandy and Andrew Bye (bothSigma Sport) and we continued to apply the pressure.

We built up a nice gap and knew that the peloton would have to really work well together to pull us back. Unfortunately Wouter Sybrandy punctured from our group and, with the neutral service car behind the peloton, we lost one of the strongest riders in the group. Then into the last few laps an incident with a horse on the course caused a crash in the break, which took out both Jonathan Tiernan Locke and Roy Chamberlain. This was a bad accident and Jonathan Tiernan Locke come off the worse with what looked like nasty head/facial injuries. The rest of us continued but it changed the whole feeling of the race. On our next time round Jonathan was still in the road being seen to and we all felt for him and knew how lucky we were that it wasn’t us lying in the road. The crash caused disruptions in the peloton too and the gap went out further. There race was eventually cut short and we were left to fight it out for the win.

Andrew Bye and myself seemed to be the most aggressive in the last lap, with Andrew eventually getting away. Sensing that the others were also tired and would not be able to catch him I jumped and started the chase on my own. Andrew hit the final climb of Leigh hill still in front and took the victory, while I stayed away to take second place. I had to be fairly satisfied with my ride as I was still suffering with a chest infection, but I was oh so close to another win again! A mention must also go to Ben Thompson (Glendene/Biketrax CC) who was clear of the main field and riding for 7th but was not directed up the finishing climb by the marshalls...he was however given his rightful finishing place after the organisers realised their mistake. Dan Kogan defended the break all race and then rode strongly up the finishing climb to take a well earned 15th. All of our thoughts are with Jonathon Tiernan Locke and hope he makes a speedy recovery.

Results:
1.) Andrew Bye: Sigma Sport
2.) Daniel Patten: Ciclos Uno-Plowman Craven-Isaac RT
3.) Andy Betts: Twickenham CC
4.) Toby Neave: Southdown Velo
5.) Thomas Crouch: Felt Racing

15.) Daniel Kogan: Ciclos Uno-Plowman Craven-Isaac RT