2008 News Archive
2007 News Archive
Four races, four wins for Plowman Craven Evans Cycles
20th July 2007
Plowman Craven Evans Cycles once again demonstrated their dominant mid season form this week when Simon Gaywood sprinted to victory in the latest round of the National Circuit Series in Colne on Wednesday (18 July). His win is the fourth for the team in as many races, and follows Gordon McCauley’s wins in both the Guilford and Blackpool crits and Tony Gibb’s victory in the latest round of the Premier Calendar Series, also in Blackpool. Gaywood retains his top place ranking in the Series, ahead of team mates McCauley in second place and Gibb in sixth.
Gaywood’s win was another strong team performance on a quick course with no sharp corners and long straights. The Plowman Craven Evans Cycles squad showed their intent early in the race when James McCallum displayed his National Circuit Race Champion jersey with a lone attack, followed a few laps later by team mates James Millard and Tony Gibb, who took the first prime of the night.
Photo © Andrew Kennedy & British Cycling
A winning combination (from left) McCallum, Gaywood, McCauley, Millard.
Other teams joined in the attacks, but with the pace in the bunch high they were all quickly brought back. A small break away including Dean Downing (Rapha Condor), Rob Partridge (Recycling), Ian Wilkinson (SIS) and Tony Gibb managed to establish a gap of around 20 seconds, but they too were caught by the fast moving bunch.
With an hour of racing completed and five laps to go, Dean Downing attacked again, but this time the entire Plowman Craven Evans Cycles squad moved to the front and quickly chase him down and set it up for Gaywood. Millard, McCallum, McCauley and Jason Allen all took turns driving the front of the race hard for the last few laps, but on the last corner Russell Downing (HealthNet) managed to come round them ans take the lead. Gaywood calmly sat in behind and with 100 m to go he moved out of the line, pressed hard on the pedals and eased past Downing to take the win comfortably. Team mate Gordon McCauley took third.
After the race, Archer GP winner Gaywood commented:
"It was very quick tonight. There were non-stop attacks, but it was obvious that nothing was going to stay
Photo © Andrew Kennedy & British Cycling
Gaywoods takes the win from Downing. away - it was just too fast. I couldn’t have done it without the team, they kept people off my wheel and gave me a perfect lead out - they were just awesome; the team is awesome. I dedicate the win to them, without them I couldn’t have done it."
Speaking about his chances of holding on to the series lead Gaywood added:
"Becoming National Series Champion would obviously be fantastic, but winning the Neil Gardener Memorial Trophy would be extra special as Neil coached me at CC Luton when I was younger and helped me to win a few Junior National titles."
Three rounds of the National Series remain, with the next event in Abergavenny at the start of August, followed by Newport, London and Warwick during September. But for Gaywood the next few weeks are focussed on banking the miles in preparation for some hard road racing during August.
Simon Barnes, Team founder and boss of Herts based Geomatics company Plowman Craven, was delighted with the victory:
"Plowman Craven Evans Cycles have again shown how we can organise ourselves to control and win races. The British Cycling website recently described the team as ‘dominating mid season elite races [with] top quality riders willing to sacrifice personal ambition for team objectives, cover attacks and having strength in depth to place two riders on the podium’, and I think that’s right. We ride tactically and have strength in depth and diversity: we’ve won on road, circuit and track in the last week with different team members taking the wins; we hold three National jerseys already this season and we’re leading in team, individual and series rankings
"Tonight we had several cards we could have played as a result of our strength in depth – James (McCallum) is National Champion, Simon (Gaywood) is leading the series, Gordon (McCauley) is second in the series and is capable of going up the road on his own as he did at Guilford, and if it came down to a bunch gallop Tony (Gibb) is among the fastest sprinters around as he showed when he beat Magnus Backstedt last week at Blackpool."
But despite his satisfaction about the performance of his squad, Barnes is disappointed about the reaction and lack of response from some promoters:
Photo © Cycling Sport
Adam Norris en route to victory.
"Plowman Craven Evans Cycles are clearly in excellent form and among the leading domestic teams yet we’re finding it hard to ride tours: the Tour of the South East – now cancelled - argued we were ineligible because we were UCI registered, although this didn’t stop Recycling, who are also a UCI team, getting a ride; and the Tour of Britain, despite Tony Doyle inviting us, have yet to confirm we have a ride. Surely one of the roles of a domestic tour is to provide a platform for the leading pro trade teams of that Country?"
Plowman Craven Evans Cycles promptly made it five wins in five races at the weekend when Adam Norris took the Terry Cronin Elite Circuit Race at Hillingdon (21 July). Norris and team mate Gordon McCauley were part of a five man break which got away early in the one hour plus five laps race. Despite heavy showers the group worked well to build a lead and stay away until Norris attacked on the lap coundown. McCauley took second.
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