2008 News Archive
2007 News Archive
Plowman Craven Evans Cycles are National Champions – twice!
21st June 2007
Plowman Craven Evans Cycles won their second national title in the space of a week when James McCallum took victory in the National Criterium Championships in Otley, Yorkshire on 20 June, just three days after team mate Tony Gibb won the National Derny Pacing Championships at Cardiff (17 June). McCallum also took silver in that event making it a Plowman Craven Evans Cycles one/two.
McCallum, a Bronze medallist in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and winner of the Toachim GP in Kent earlier this year, was part of a small group that slipped away on the back of a tough circuit with five laps to go, outsprinting World Team Pursuit Champion Ed Clancy (Landbowkredit) and Matt Cronshaw (Sis/Trek) to take victory in just under an hour. He is the second Plowman Craven Evans Cycles rider in a row to win the title – team mate James Taylor won the Championship in 2006, and he was also in the decisive break this year, eventually finishing in seventh place.
Speaking to the BCFs Larry Hickmott after the race, McCallum commented: "I rode this course last year and it was really hard for the first 10 laps and so I thought it would be best to be near the front. It is a hard, hard course with a climb that really takes it out of you. We got lucky when we were going along the back straight in the dark and managed to slip away unnoticed, James and I trying to be as inconspicuous as you can wearing pink!
Photo © Gerry McManus
James McCallum takes victory to become National Champion
"Ed Clancy had a big dig up the climb on the last lap and Matt Cronshaw had a go at the top, but I managed to stay with them. I was in second place going down towards the finish, and coming into the final bend I was thinking 'if I come round this corner in first or second, I'm winning this'. The next thing I knew my hands were in the air and I'd won."
"To win a British championship is great. I've been trying for years to get this and now I have silver in the Derny championships and a circuit race jersey which I can wear a bit more than the one for the Derny champs if I'd won that. But don't say that to Tony!"
James is now looking forward to showing off the Champion's jersey in the next round of the National Circuit Series in Beverley, East Yorkshire in two weeks time. Plowman Craven Evans Cycles already have a victory in the series, thanks to Archer winner Simon Gaywood's victory in the opening round. Team clothing supplier Impsport are quickly producing a national champion's jersey so that James can also wear it at the Smithfield Nocturne this coming weekend, when closed circuit racing returns to the Capital. Impsport are not the only sponsors pleased with James' Championship victory; Otley was the first time the Plowman Craven Evans Cycles team had used their new Fulcrum carbon wheels supplied by Jim Walker Cycles, and the riders were full of praise for the way they handled on the tight city centre course.
McCallum's win came less than a week after he and team mate Tony Gibb dominated the Cardiff Track GP, held on the City's newly resurfaced Maindy track. The pair took one/two in most of the programme during the two day event (16/17 June) including the National Track Endurance League 20 km scratch race on the Saturday and the National Derny Paced Championship on the Sunday. So emphatic was Gibb's victory
Photo © Gerry McManus
James McCallum with his National Championship trophy in the Derny that he had time on the final lap to slap his pacer Graham Bristow on the back by way of thanks for the terrific job he had done pacing Tony throughout the race.
Tony's success at Cardiff was no less impressive for the fact that he had raced the Leazes Criterium in Newcastle the night before (15 June), leaving at 5 am to get to Cardiff in time. Ridden in very difficult conditions and reduced to 45 minutes because of failing light, Tony took fourth place behind team mate Gordon McCauley's second, the pair looking as if they'd ridden Paris Roubaix by the time the race was over and still picking grit out of their eyes the next day. The race was won by Chris Newton (Recycling).
While Tony and James left Newcastle for Cardiff, the rest of the team competed in the seventh round of the Premier Calendar series, the 105 mile Beaumont Trophy (17 June) based on a tough undulating circuit around the village of Stamfordham in Northumberland. In a fast and furious raced that reached 30 mph within minutes of the off, Plowman Craven Evans Cycles' Gordon McCauley was part of an early break of seven who quickly established a gap of up to 45 seconds before being caught. McCauley eventually finished in fourteenth position behind race winner Russell Downing (HealthNet) and currently lies in fifth place in the series.
The Team continued their winning week on Thursday night (21 June) when Tony Gibb, Gordon McCauley, Simon Gaywood and James Millard won the Port Talbot four-up 25 mile time trial. Despite appalling weather conditions the foursome set a new course record of 50.03.
And it's set to be another busy weekend for the boys in the pink and blue – on Saturday Tony Gibb, James McCallum, Simon Gaywood, James Millard and Adam Norris ride the Smithfield Nocturne, a criterium in the heart of the City of London. With the new National Criterium Champion and the winner of the first round of the National Circuit Series in the squad, Plowman Craven Evans Cycles are among the favorites. The next day Tony, Simon and James Millard remain in the South of England for the Eastern Counties three-up 50 km time trial, while the rest of the squad travel north to ride the latest round of the Premier Calendar, the 185 km Rydale Grand Prix at North Yorkshire's Duncombe Park.
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More information from Jonathan O’Neil: +44 (0) 7956250837 or click here
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