Silver Spoon Chase (2-day)
21-Apr-1996
| LEADING an Optimum Performance RT benefit, Gary Speight triumphed in the Chairman's Silver Spoon Chase two-day race at Newark, Nottinghamshire. Saturday's opening 57.5-mile road stage proved decisive, as Speight led home team-mates Wayne Randle and Kevin Dawson ahead of last year's overall winner Chris Newton (North Wirral Velo), who had earlier taken the 1.5-mile prologue TT. National amateur road champion Simon Bray (Team Energy) took Sunday's final 83-mile leg but there was no change overall as the Optimum trio, led by Randle, all finished safely in the bunch. Newton held on for fourth position overall but North Wirral were the main losers, failing to place a man in the top 10 in the final stage. Newton had opened his defence of the Silver Spoon title by finishing almost three seconds clear in the time trial with a 36mph performance, foiling a clean sweep by Optimum riders Randle, Paul Curran and Kevin Dawson. A misunderstanding with a police outrider was possibly the catalyst for an early split in the field on the opening road stage, which ended with more than half the field finishing 10 minutes or more behind stage winner Speight. Within the first few miles there was a flurry of solo attacks from the field of 83 starters and, although the peloton was stretched out in one long line, there was no split until the incident with the outrider, who pulled over the driver of a service vehicle which had over taken the lead car. Race radio suggested that the police were unhappy, and the commissaire stopped the race to talk to the riders. Almost as soon as the race was restarted a group of five riders went clear, and after seven miles of racing they had a 15sec gap as they passed through the finish line for the first time. Two miles later, at the top of the climb out of Laxton, the group had grown to 14 riders and the leading 11 riders on the stage were the survivors of this move. With every rider doing his share of the work the gap quickly increased to more than 40 seconds on the second lap. Bryan Steel (Team Chilwell) punctured but managed to regain the break, and as they approached Ossington airfield for the fourth time, having covered almost 30 miles in the first hour, the gap had grown to 1-40. A lap later this had increased by a further minute on a group of five led by Paul Curran and Martin Pitchford, of Brough Wheelers, with the main bunch at three minutes. With just over 25 miles remaining, Randle attacked on the small climb approaching the airfield and, although he was pulled back, it was the first in an almost continuous volley of attacks by the Optimum riders. On lap seven an attack by Gary Speight finally split the remaining 11 riders into three groups. He had earlier puncture victim Ben Wilson (Irish Heritage CC) and an unworking Simon Lillistone (North Wirral Velo) for company, while Chris Newton was attempting to bridge the gap under the watchful eye of Speight's Optimum team-mates. It came back together to leave a leading group of seven, from which Optimum's Mark Lovatt was the first to crack under the pressure. Into the last few miles and Speight stole a few yards going through Ossington village and suddenly the gap was five seconds. The remaining six were spread over 55 seconds by the finish, with Speight coming in 11 seconds clear of Randle. Steve Farrell (Tunstall Wheelers) attacked almost from the start of Sunday's 83-mile final stage and was clear for seven miles with Tim Gill (Keighley Velo). As they were pulled back at Lockwell Hill there was immediately another attack of just over half a dozen riders from which Keith Reynolds (CC Giro), Paul Jennings (North Wirral Velo) and Tim Gill broke free. The three worked well together to stretch out a maximum 2-20 lead with 39 miles remaining, but with the Optimum Performance riders' team time trialling on the front of the bunch the gap came down as quickly as it had grown. It was back to 1-30 when, on the climb up the exposed road to Ollerton, Jennings cracked suddenly and dramatically. Then, at the finish line with 26 miles left, Reynolds was on his own as Gill also felt the pace. Reynolds was finally reeled in after two and a half hours' racing, with 15 miles remaining. Farrell attacked by himself three miles later but was caught by a chasing group of eight with four miles to go. Simon Bray (Team Energy) jumped clear with two miles to go and hung on to cross the line seven seconds ahead of first-year senior Philip West (Middridge CRT) as Reynolds salvaged third place and the `most aggressive rider' award. Just less than a minute behind Bray, Wayne Randle took the bunch sprint for 10th place from 46 other riders including team-mates Speight, in the yellow jersey, and Dawson. Randle thus took second place overall in the Silver Spoon event for the fourth time in his career. The event was promoted by Newark Castle CC in conjunction with Newark and Sherwood District Council. During the postrace speeches, both British Sugar and, significantly, the assistant chief constable of Nottinghamshire, pledged their continued support for the race. Stage 1,1.5m TT. 1. Chris Newton (North Wirral Velo)...... 2 36.9 Stage 2 1. Gary Speight 57.5m in 2-11-49 Stage 3 1. Simon Bray (Team Energy) 83m in 3-17-42 FINAL OVERALL 1. Gary Speight 5-33-06 Teams:.Optimum Performance RT 16-41-32; 2, N Wirral
Velo at 6-39; 3, VC Lincoln at 19-31. |