Clay gets it right
By Keith Bingham. Pictures by Phil O’Connor.

Making it four Premier Calendar wins in a row, Team Brite came from behind to take Sunday's Cycling Weekly Archer Grand Prix in Buckinghamshire.

THE men in red came from behind, like scratchmen in a handicap. They scythed through the wind and rain to catch and dismiss the early front-runners, and so snatch first and second places in the 106-mile Cycling Weekly Archer Grand Prix at Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire on Sunday.

The winner this time was current RTTC 10-mile champion and versatile cycling ace Jonny Clay. His brilliantly executed counter-attack with four others after 50 miles slowly clawed its way up to the leading break, from which he attacked to ride the last nine miles alone.

Just as impressive was his young compatriot Chris Newton, the winner in 1995 and leader of this year's Premier Calendar with wins in the GP Essex and Europa two-day. Newton was heavily marked but eventually got free to take second place, 42 seconds behind Clay, after outsprinting Matt Beckett (Northern FoilingsDeeside Cycles) following a near 50-mile chase to reach the front.

More importantly, Team Brite did all this with three key men - Rob Hayles, John Tanner and Chris Walker - absent from the event, so no one can claim they were outnumbered.

But if Team Brite provided the men of the race, then it was Nick Craig (DiamondBack) - seventh in the recent Grundig World Cup mtb race in California - who ran them close. The reigning national mtb champion won the King of the Mountains competition and finished 10th, but it was the attack by Craig and Jamie Norfolk (Giant) on the second of nine hilly laps which set the race alight.

Within two laps, counter-attacks split the field and the race behind began to break up. This led to the formation of an 11-strong group after only 20 miles, the principal players of which, besides Craig and Norfolk, were Brian Smith and Drew Wilson (Clarke Contracts), Mark McKay (Harrods), Chris King (Team Bristol) and Bryan Steel (Team Brite). Steel sat mostly at the back of this group, no doubt confident that Clay and Newton would soon be on the way.

And so it was that, with the front group's lead at 2-40 on the main field after 50 miles, the Clay five took off in hot pursuit. With Clay were Scott Gamble (Linda McCartney Foods), Lee Davies (Terry Wright Cycles), Dave Rand (PDM Sports-WCU), and Richard Wooles (Cwmcarn Paragon). Meanwhile, the main pack, with Newton imprisoned, fell back to 3-26 on the lead group.

The Clay five drove hard and steady, to lie 1-48 behind with four laps, or 44 miles, to go. Around this point, Newton freed himself of the main field and began closing on all those in front, like a cheetah fearing he would be denied a kill.

Smith, perhaps sensing the danger of an impending attack, laid into the Craig group with several sustained attacks which summarily despatched the weaker men. King joined Smith as the Clay five came into sight, just 28 seconds behind as they raced down to Penn Bottom.

After chasing for 25 miles, the Clay train hooked up with those left behind by the attacks of Smith and King, and then immediately gave chase once more, to climb the Gore Hill prime for the seventh time with just 22 miles remaining. The sunny spell of lap five was over and now, just two laps later, torrential rain set in.

Steel punctured on the run-up to Winchmore Hill, as Clay moved to clear up the drag. Pulled back, Clay tried again and this time succeeded. He caught Smith and King with 16 miles to go, at which point King cracked. This left Clay and Smith in the lead with 23 seconds over their recent companions.

They flogged through the finish straight on the bell lap and Clay turned the screw on Smith during the half-mile drag of Gore Hill, opening up a 150-metre lead over the summit.

In a trice Clay was gone, and although Smith fought valiantly back to within 26 seconds, a puncture ruined his chance of contesting the lead.

Smith and his late breakaway companions - now looking the worse for wear - were overhauled by Newton and Beckett, whose flight through the field had gone unreported on race radio. And as Clay, looking deceptively calm and smooth, sped towards his first ever victory in a single-day Premier Calendar race with a time of 4-11.15, his team-mate Newton, aided by Beckett, came out of nowhere to take second and third respectively.

Scott Gamble (Linda McCartney Foods) led in the remnants of the break to take fourth at 1-05 after successfully outsprinting Wilson (Clarke Contracts) and Rand (PDM Sports-WCU). David Oakley, who was in the original 11-man break, finished seventh at 1-15.

1. Jonny Clay (Team Brite) 106m in 4-11-15
2. C. Newton (Team Brite) at 42sec
3. M. Beckett (Northern Foils-Deeside Cycles)
4. S. Gamble (Linda McCartney Foods) at 1-05
5. D. Wilson (Clarke Contracts)
6. D. Rand (PDM Sports-WCU) both st
7. D. Oakley (West Drayton MBC) at 1-15
8. L. Davis (Terry Wright Cycles) st
9. M. McKay (Harrods-Giant) at 1-20
10. N. Craig (DiamondBack) at 1-24
11. R. Homer (Cannons PCT) at 2-15
12. J. Winn (PDM Sports-WCU)
13. R. Moore (Clarke Contracts)
14. M. Ford (Ambrosia) all st
15. B. Smith (Clarke Contracts) at 2-21
16. S. Dangerfield (Wheelbase) at 3-12
17. J. Bayfield (Harrods-Giant)
18. R. Downing (Team Brite)
19. J. Clarke (Harrods-Giant)
20. S. Cope (Linda McCartney Foods) all st.

Icing of the Mountains.- Nick Craig (DiamondBack); 2, C. King (Team Bristol); 3, B, Smith (Clarke Contracts).

Where did Newton spring from?

LOOKING fit and tanned and not the least bit tired, Chris Newton's recent wins in the Essex and the Europa two-day meant he was the heavily-marked clear favourite.

"Everyone was just watching me because of the form. It got that I couldn't move. I couldn't blow my nose without someone leaning on it," Newton laughed, accepting the lack of privacy inflicted upon the notorious.

"So I just bided my time. I knew I had the legs. I just waited until everyone got tired."

He picked up the story three laps out, when he was trying to reach the Clay group: "There was myself, Julian Winn (PDM SportsWCU), Matt Beckett and another lad from the Scottish team. I jumped again, and took Matt with me. We worked together, and every time we caught a group we just jumped past it."

Beckett’s great day

THREE years after taking up cycling, Matt Beckett (Northern Foil-Deeside Cycles) took third in one of the toughest road races on the UK calendar. "I used to prat about on a mountain bike, just for fun, when someone in Cardiff said "why don't you try road racing?"' Beckett grinned as he recalled those early days.

Beckett joined Chris Newton on a crusade which swept all but one man out of their way. It was half-distance when the pair set out - in separate moves to begin with - and Beckett explained how they joined up after he was part of a five-man group trying to make good their losses on the leading group of Nick Craig, Brian Smith and the Clay five.

"I was with Gary Baker, another Olympia guy, Richard Moore and Mark Lovatt. The groups were coming down quite quickly. In a lap we got back a minute. We were 3-40 back at one point, and a lap later we were 2-20, something like that. Then a big group, with Newton in it, caught us up, so it was then just a matter of staying with them and recovering a bit, because it was obvious that, with the way Newton was going, he was going to put the boot in. So he put the boot in and I went with him, and so did [Julian] Winn and Moore again. "And then we waited a bit and Newton split it up again, on the main road up Gore Hill this time. Then there was just the two of us. Newton was going like a train with just under a lap to go - it was s**t or bust."

Beckett recalled how he had started to cramp up when the sun was shining, but felt refreshed by the heavy rain which chilled others.

"I was all right then," he laughed. "I like the rain. At the finish he [Newton] was all over me. I was cramping up again. He did most of the work. I didn't contest it that's life, isn't it? I enjoyed it. That's the main thing."