Durham University Cycling Club

Another busy week of hard racing for Durham Uni – AURA Cycles has lead to some more excellent results for the team. It has also been great to see 10 different riders racing this week, a clear indication of the strength in depth and the progression the club has made this season.

Will Haynes and Andy Miles were again in action down at Croft on Tuesday evening for the TLI pursuit series. A tough race saw both Durham riders in the thick of the action and on the offensive, however with a strong field of riders nothing was getting away. The results were decided in a bunch sprint after a few hectic laps of jockeying for position. Both Haynes and Miles missed out on the top ten but were happy nonetheless with a strong showing and some solid race speed in the legs.

Sam Walsh joined Miles and Haynes for the TLI Newburn Crits on Thursday evening in Newcastle, again run as a 40 lap points race. The Durham riders were well marked throughout after Will’s victory the previous week, and a break never looked likely to succeed. Instead, it was left to the powerful sprinters to mop up the majority of the points, although consistent riding by Haynes saw him pick up a few minor placings throughout the race. Some strong teamwork also contributed to Will bagging the final sprint after a good leadout by Walsh and Miles. A great team performance that saw Haynes finish the race in 4th place, only a single point off 3rd.

On Saturday, the North-East Criterium League returned to Hetton, with a 30mins 4th cat race followed by the 3rd/4th cats. Representing Durham in the first race were Kat Broadbent, Matt Leake, Rory Macleod and Matt Parry. Leake was unlucky to puncture early on, whilst Kat had a solid ride to hang with the bunch for most of the race. In a brilliant sprint up the finishing straight the remaining Durham riders narrowly missed out on the win and had to settle for 2nd (Rory) and 3rd (Matt), two very good results.

Alex Clayton, Pete Hudson, Matt Leake and Andy Miles were racing the 3rd cat race, with all riders keen to get some more points on the board. Durham were attacking from the off, before Miles managed to get away about half way through with Mike Bell of MTS. After working well together for a few laps, Andy then attacked again and soloed to a well deserved victory. Great teamwork from behind saw Clayton, Hudson and Leake blocking any dangerous counter-moves. Pete was unlucky to puncture towards the end of the race, whilst Alex (6th) and Matt (8th) bagged top-ten results in the final sprint.

A strong Durham team competed in the prestigious Ballantyne Memorial Trophy Road Race on Sunday, a very tough 3rd/4th cat race around Northumberland. Attracting some of the top 3rd cat riders from the North-East and Scotland a hard race was on the cards. The four Durham riders racing were Rich Abraham, Alex Clayton, Nathan Edwards and Andy Miles. Edwards suffered a nasty crash early on but thankfully sustained no serious injuries, and worked well in a small group to the finish. Miles rode an aggressive race throughout, initially in an early break bought back at half way, and then in a solo effort to bridge up to the leading break. Unfortunately he didn’t quite make it across and was joined by a select group on the final climb of the day, which included Clayton. This group worked well together to the end, finishing about 1.30mins behind the leading trio. Miles claimed a respectable 5th whilst Clayton came home 13th on the same time. Abraham rode a good race to stay with the peloton until the last few climbs and eventually rolled home about 5mins down.

This week will see riders in action at Croft, Newburn and then a return to Northumberland for a tough Reg. A road race on Sunday. The Durham Uni – AURA Cycles riders will hope to build on this successful week and pick up some more good results.

The first week of summer term has seen Durham Uni – AURA Cycles riders competing both locally and nationally, with the BUCS 25 Championships in Cambridge marking an end to the BUCS time trial series and a fitting climax to an excellent week of racing.

Will Haynes was the sole Durham representative at the TLI Croft series on Tuesday night. Despite there not being any BC points up for grabs, an impressive field of 90 riders still turned up to test their legs in this popular summer series, including local stars such as Team Raleigh’s Matt Kipling. Run as a handicapped race, Will was in the scratch group, with 2 further groups up the road to chase down. Not wanting to risk getting caught up in the large bunch, Haynes immediately attacked the peloton when the junction was made between the scratch group and the now combined first and second groups. A further 3 riders joined the head of the race, however this was soon whittled down to 2 as the pressure was applied up front. An impressive ride by Will and his breakaway companion Michael Dales (Velo29) saw the duo sprint for the victory, with Will marginally missing out on the win to take a brilliant 2^nd place.

Haynes was again in action on Thursday night, this time joined by teammate Andy Miles at the 2^nd round of the TLI Newburn Riverside Criteriums. On a short, fast course around the local business park, the race was run in the form of a 40 lap points race, with 8 sprints in total being contested every 5 laps. From the off the Durham riders were active at the head of the race, taking turns to get in the early moves. On lap 11, after the 2^nd sprint, a break did eventually stick, with Haynes being joined by 3 other riders. This proved to be the decisive move and the group, eventually whittled down to 2 stayed away to contest the remaining sprints. In an impressive display of domination, Haynes comfortably mopped up all but one of the remaining sprints to stick 39 points on the board, 22 more than Sports Cover’s Collin Humphrey in 2^nd place. Once the break was established, Miles had a fairly straightforward race controlling proceedings at the head of the bunch, eventually finishing 8^th.

After the recent successes at the BUCS TTT and 10 Champs, Saturday marked the return to the crazy world of time trialling, with bikes and bodies once again modified to trim away the seconds and find those extra watts at the 25 Championships. Representing Durham Uni – AURA Cycles were Rich Abraham, Alex Clayton, Andy Miles and Will Haynes, with Kat Broadbent flying the flag in the woman’s event. A reasonably tough course was made tougher by a heaving north-easterly wind funnelling down the lumpy finishing straight, a world away from the speedy course used last year in Oxford. Riders covered 2 laps of a 12 ½ mile triangular circuit, with a fast wind-assisted straight followed by a nasty cross wind stretch before the treacherous run-in to the finish. First off was Kat, who recorded a 1.16.29 to finish in 16^th place amongst a strong field dominated by Cambridge riders. Rich then posted a respectable 1.03.34 to come home in 47^th before Will (16^th), Alex (19^th) and Andy (20^th) all had good rides to come home in under the hour. Haynes recorded an excellent 57.47, whilst for the second week running Clayton finished a handful of seconds ahead of Miles with times of 58.38 and 58.57 respectively. As a team this put Durham in a pleasing 5^th place behind Birmingham, Oxford and two strong Cambridge teams.

This week sees another busy racing schedule with Durham riders competing at Croft on Tuesday, Newburn/Prissick on Thursday then a double header at the weekend with Hetton on Saturday and the Ballantyne Trophy Road Race on Sunday. Let’s hope for another fruitful week, race reports to follow next weekend…

The race was the first round of a series of TLI races on Anglesey, North Wales. A field of 35 riders turned up, not many but a pretty good standard, roughly 10 2nd cats. The course was 42 miles (3x14miles). The break went on a climb halfway round the first lap, a couple of the “danger” men were in it so quickly made sure I was there. I had a team mate in it with me so we definitely had the advantage. We worked reasonably well for the next two laps pulling out a lead of over 2 minutes on the bunch. My team mate attacked halfway round the last lap and pulled out a good 20-30 second advantage. I sat on while the other three riders tried pretty hard to close it the, seeing them flagging on a steeper section I dug hard and managed to bridge across without dragging them along. From there it was obviously going to be a 1,2 and I just managed to hold on for 1st by 1/2 a wheel. A good race and more importantly that elusive 1st win under the belt.