2008 News Archive
2007 News Archive
Barras carpets opposition
17th March 2008
Tom Barras scored his first win as a Plowman Craven rider this weekend, with victory in the 100 km Curtain Express road race at Saighton in Cheshire (16 March). The former Merlin rider won a two-up sprint to clinch victory from James Williamson of Sigma Sport on a rolling circuit in windy conditions.
With the rest of the Plowman Cravensquad racing elsewhere, Barras set out early to force other teams to chase him, attacking after only six miles with Kit Gilham of Team Kenesis. Over the next three miles a number of others crossed the gap, including Williamson and Tom Southam of Team Halfords-Bikehut, until the breakaway settled at nine riders with a lead of two minutes over the nearest chasers.
With three riders in the breakaway Team Kinesis were in a strong position and began taking it in turns to attack. Barras and Southam followed the attacks until with eight miles to go Gilham and Williamson managed to open up a small gap. Realising that the other Kenesis riders wouldn't chase down their team mate, Barras rode hard to cross the gap, reaching the pair after about half a mile on his own since no-one was able to match his speed. With Gilham and Williamson accepting the third member of their breakaway, the three worked together to quickly open up a 30 second advantage over the chasing group.
With two miles remaining hostilities resumed and Williamson launched an attack. Barras took Gilham's wheel, forcing him to chase and, as he began to tire and lose speed, jumped over him to reach Williamson with a mile to go. With 200m left of a uphill run-in to the line, Barras attacked up the left gutter to win by a clear margin.
A clearly delighted Barras was pleased with his first win in the distinctive pink and blue Plowman Craven colours:
"I was very pleased with my day. If I had to sum up my race in one sentence I would say, ‘outnumbered, but never outgunned'. Bring on the Girvan."
But while Barras took the flag in Cheshire, in the South neither the results nor the weather ideally suited his Plowman Craven team mates.
In the Hounslow Spring road race in Surrey (16 March) the Team were unable to repeat last year's victory by Gordon MacCauley. Team leader Tony Gibb had to settle for third in a largely negative race which saw the Plowman Craven Team being marked men throughout a wet and windy day.
Sigma Sport's Andrew Bye took victory, sprinting clear of Sports Beans' rider Marc Perry, after the pair got away mid-way through the race. With no other teams prepared to work to bring them back Plowman Craven riders took it in turns to close the gap on the leaders, and eventually Gibb got away from the chasing bunch. Although his move galvanised the other teams into action and he was soon joined by a small group of riders, they promptly sat up and dropped in behind. With the chase over Gibb bided his time before winning the sprint for third.
Team manager Garry Beckett said afterwards:
"Everyone else was sitting on our guys and waiting for something to happen.
"It was a hard day for us because we had to do all the chasing, and with three laps to go Alex Higham broke a spoke just before a difficult part of the circuit, and Neil Coleman, who had done a lot of the work to bring back the break, went out the back around the same time."
Next weekend the Team travel to Scotland for the second race of the 2008 Premier Calendar series, the 250 mile, three-day Girvan stage race across Ayrshire and Galloway.
back to news section