Good Friday Meeting (Herne Hill)
29-Mar-2002

A VERY BRITISH AFFAIR
By David Taylor for Snowdon Sports Editorial / Pictures Phil O’Connor

Home riders basked in glory-and sunshine- in front of 2,000 spectators at the Southern Counties CU Good Friday track meeting at Herne Hill.

GLORIOUS sunshine marked the opening of the outdoor track season with the 99th Good Friday meeting at London's Herne Hill stadium, where Britain's riders proved equal to the Continental challenge.

As if the weather wasn't enough, the home contingent gave a big crowd everything they could have wanted and, even without any big-name attractions, the meeting turned out to be one of the best for years with a 100plus field providing some scintillating racing.

The day's big heroes were James Taylor (City of Edinburgh RC, winner of the £2,500 first prize in the Polygon Finance Golden Wheel 20-kilometre scratch race, Chris Newton (GS Pinarello), who scored a double in the Roadman's Pursuit and Ed Taylor Memorial Fund points race, and Ross Edgar (Dataphonics RT), winner of the Classic Walls Champion of Champions sprint.

And former world BMX champion Jamie Staff, 28, underlined his track promise with victory in the famous White Hope Sprint.

The lone visitor to break the home stranglehold was Italy's Fabio Masotti, who was successful in the 25-lap Derny-paced race and a devil take the hindmost.

Although unable to notch up any wins, the other foreign riders added to the day's colour and excitement with Holland's Theo Bos, a former world junior kilometre champion, Mike Tillman, America's national points and pursuit champion in 2000, and South African national sprint champion Dean Edwards all showing strongly.

The seven competitors brought over by former world keirin champion Frederic Magne from his UCI coaching school in Switzerland included - as well as riders from Cuba, Japan and China - Britain's Ross Edgar, the former under-16 sprint, 500-metre and circuit national champion.

It was 19-year-old Edgar who left Magne a happy man after the Dataphonics RT rider trounced the opposition to take the Champion of Champions Trophy in the Classic Walls Sprint when he outclassed Bos in the two-lap final with a last 200 metres time of 11.47sec.

TALENT SHOW

With British Cycling's national track coach Heiko Salzwedel looking on and Wales' national coach Shane Sutton in the track centre, the meeting was an ideal place for talent to show itself.

Polygon Finance Golden Wheel 20km scratch

With the best part of £5,000 in prize money on offer, half of it going to the winner, the Golden Wheel Scratch Race which brought the meeting to a close was the event to win. And it was former World Class Performance Plan rider James Taylor who grabbed the glory and the money.

The added incentive of £75 sprints every five laps saw attack follow attack, with Martin Benjamin (Netherlands), Bryan Taylor (VC Londres) and Mark Baker (GS Bollington) the early belligerents.

Benjamin and Bryan Taylor took the first primes before Russell Williams (Geoffrey Butler Cycles) took advantage of a lull to storm off for a crowd-pleasing prime win.

Baker had another go, gaining five seconds before the Dutch-led pack swooped on him and brought up comeback rider Jeff Snodin (Melton Olympic CC) to grab the £75.

Snodin was joined by James Taylor, Newton, Garth Blackburn (USA) and Welsh Commonwealth Games hopeful Huw Pritchard (Angliasport RT) and, later, by Switzerland's Markus Kammerman with 18 laps to go.

The break soon had another dozen riders and again Newton attacked, followed by Kammerman, only to be pulled back as Tillman scooped the next prime before Kammerman and Williams tried to edge away.

James Taylor ended their bid for freedom in time for Newton to win the last sprint. Newton maintained the pressure with Tillman latching on to him.

Two laps to go and the duo had five seconds' advantage over the bunch that was being pulled along by the combined efforts of the Dutch and Italian teams.

Their bid for freedom ended just before the bell sounded the final lap, and it was James Taylor well ahead of Fabio Masotti and Newton on the line.

1. James Taylor (City of Edinburgh RC-Classic Walls) 25-32.48
2. F. Masotti (Italy)
3. C. Newton (GS Pinarello)

Ed Taylor Memorial Fund 25-lap Points

Back from warm weather training in Majorca where he rounded off last week with two "very hard six-hour training rides", Chris Newton looked ready to take on the world, and he did just that in the Roadman's Pursuit and Ed Taylor points race.

The points race was a two-man battle between Newton and Fabio Masotti, with Newton continually trying to escape from the massive pack. It was in this event that WCPP rider Bryan Steel (Team Chilwell) came to grief and went out of the day's racing.

Steel was involved in a sprint when one of the American riders touched his wheel

and forced him off the track to collide with the lap-board. First aid was quickly at hand, and eventually Steel was back on his feet with a bandaged knee but out of the racing.

Meanwhile, the battle for points went on until, with five laps remaining, Masotti led by one point from Newton. But the Olympic bronze medallist fought hard to regain the lead by one point with two laps to go - and that was enough to clinch victory.

"After those hard rides in Majorca I still feel tired so I wasn't too sure how I'd go today," admitted Newton.

"The pursuit was really a time trial so I was able to pick up as we went along, and by the points race I had begun to move a lot better."

Garry Beckett, co-promoter of the Herne Hill meeting with Graham Bristow, estimated the Good Friday crowd to be nudging 2,000.

"That's about the same as in recent years," he said. "I don't know what else we can do to get more people in - it was a fantastic day, and the racing was tremendous.

"Part of being promoters is that we are eternal optimists and will only be happy with numbers when we can repeat the `good old days' and have to close the gates because of a full house!

"Of course that will never happen again, and we just hope that we still have a track in the future to enable us to keep on trying."

1. Chris Newton (GS Pinarello) 25 pts
2. F. Masotti (Italy) 24
3. M. Tillman (USA) 17

Roadman's Pursuit

The roadman's 10-minute pursuit in fact lasted for a shade over nine minutes, for by then Newton had caught all of his opponents with Stuart Shawcross (Team Lighthouse) and Michael Pooley (Musselburgh RCC) taking the lesser places.

1. Chris Newton (GS Pinarello)
2. S. Shawcross (Team Lighthouse)
3. M. Pooley (Musselburgh RCC)


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