VS Cycles tops the Yorkshire region

With a full squad of riders competing in the Yorkshire region, the VS team have been in the top position for well over 2 months. The riders including Paul Dixon, Matthew Armitage, Johnny Limebear, Andrew Marshall, Dominic Turner and Michael Lever have all played their part in keeping the team at the front of the leader board. Many of the squad are racing twice a week and although points aren’t gained in every event a steady flow has kept them ahead of the rest of the field.

The two riders earning the most points are Yorkshire divisional champion Paul Dixon and Matthew Armitage , with Andrew Marshall and Johnny Limebear & Mick Lever also getting into the points on a regular basis.

The big event of the year for many of the local riders was held in Otley on June 28^th. The town centre road race around the 1.4 mile circuit  was once again a huge success with a crowd of over 4000 turning out to see this spectacular closed circuit event.  The first event for 3/4/W saw Dominic Turner, Johnny Limebar, Paul Waddington and Michael Lever competing alongside 100 other riders. The high paced race averaging almost 26 miles per hour and a little over 3 minutes to complete a lap meant the crowd was always entertained by the rush of the riders passing by. The race held over 30 minutes plus 5 laps was eventually won by Giles Pidcock (Aire Valley RT) with Dominic Turner, Johnny Limebear and Mick Lever all well up in the top 50 finishers.

Following this came the youngsters race for U12, U14 and U16 category riders, which due to a crash late in the first event was cut short to 4 laps. A great experience though for all the young riders to perform in front of such a huge crowd.

The final event of the evening was the E,1,2 race in which VS’s John Doherty was up against the likes of Malcolm Elliot, Dean and Russell Downing and many other national and former national champions and olympic stars from the road and track. Again a large entry of almost 100 riders took off to battle it out for the main prize, and immediately attacks kept splitting the field apart. A break of about 20 to 30 riders abbed and flowed of the front of the chasing pack, where John was holding a good position throughout the hour long race. With the final lap came a brilliant move by Russell Downing to jump away from his rivals to secure a fantastic sprint finish. John finished in the chasing bunch which was only seconds down on the winning group in a race which averaged almost 30 miles per hour.

In other results Paul Dixon finished 12^th in the second round of the masters series on the 10^th of June, this result keeps him in second place in the overall standings with 2 more rounds to go.  Paul also finished 5^th just half a tyre width behind team mate Matthew Armitage in the Oldham Century road race over 105 kilometres held on the 2^nd July.

John Doherty has been gaining points on a regular basis throughout the year and some of his most recent results include:- finishing 8^th and 7^th at the Darley Moor circuit races promoted by Ashfield RC for E,1,2  held on the evenings of 7th and 14^th of June respectively.

Another 7^th place came in the “Not so lumpy road race” held by Preston CC on 24 of June.

Then came a 6^th in the time trial stage of the Bicycle Magic Morecombe Bay 2 day stage race followed by 9^th in the second road race which gave him 9^th in the overall classification for the 4 events.

Stage 1 Time Trial - Lancaster, Stage 2 Road Race - Carnforth, Stage 3 Criterium - Lancaster, Stage 4 Road Race - Ulverston

This weekend saw John racing in Northwich in the Weaver Valley CC event for 1/2/3’s over 87 miles. Working hard to get into the breaks John was always up for a good ride and finished 6^th to bag another hat full of points.

Meanwhile Andy Marshall and Mick Lever were racing in the Hull Thursday 2 stage race at Walkington near Beverley. The first event was a 7 km time trial, which even at 10 in the morning was held in hot conditions. Andy had good ride to complete the course in a shade over 10 minutes (10.00.2) to claim 5^th spot whilst Mick had creditable ride in 11.12.9 to finish 35 out of a field of 60. The winning time was posted by Keith Murray in 9.39.3.

The riders all had chance to re fuel and rest a while before the road race started at 12.00, 92 km in the mid day sun! A long rolling drag of almost 5 km on the circuit of 8 laps always put pressure on the riders and this is were the attacks were thrown in. With riders defending the earlier time trial times and win bonuses up for grabs, no one was allowed to get too far away. Then on lap 6 a winning move was formed by 3 riders on the climb and with no reaction from the bunch they quickly pulled out a 30 second lead. On the final lap, Andy Marshall made a big effort to cross the gap to the 3 leaders but just failed to make it as they rounded the corner to begin the descent. He held out in front of the chasing bunch till almost 10 metres to the finishing line when he was swallowed up by the gallop of almost 30 riders.

Mick Lever sprinted well to take 5th in the bunch sprint and gain 8^th place on the road, just a bike length ahead of Andy in 9^th place. The race times were then accumulated for both events and Andy’s excellent time trial result and bunch finish gave him 5^th place overall. Mick was 21^st overall, the event was won by Alan Nixon (Wheelspincycles.com/Scott).

Image courtesy of Kennedy Images

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