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Long day in the saddle for Team Plowman Craven
29th June 2008
Switching back to the road after a heavy program of criterium races Team Plowman Craven competed in the National Road Race Championships on Sunday (29th June) in North Yorkshire.
Lining up against arguably one of the classiest fields to ever contest the British title Plowman Craven riders were prominent throughout the mammoth 203km race. There was no complacency as the attacks came from the gun, with team members Alex Higham and Simon Gaywood escaping after only a few kilometres. Joined by 7 others the group began to stretch their advantage out, behind a chase group formed with team mate James Millard present. However the impetus disappeared from the front group despite their advantage, and although they tried to inject the pace back into the break no one else seemed willing to commit and they were caught a few kilometres later.
The first two hours of the race were run off at break neck speed with constant attacking, but the pace was so high that no group could maintain even a small advantage before being swallowed up by the peleton. It was apparent that the elastic would soon snap, and snap it did! A select group of riders moved clear, behind both Simon Richardson and Roger Hammond attempted to cross the small gap to the leaders who at this stage had only a small advantage. The speed injected into the break by Rob Hayles (Halfords) was so high that even the stars of British racing could not either cross over to the break or indeed quash their advantage.
The group led by Hayles and last year's silver medallist Daniel Lloyd gradually pulled out a large advantage which topped out at 4 minutes. The chase behind was now on as with the peleton led by Team Plowman Craven and continental stars David Millar and Ian Stannard and the gap soon began to tumble. Now the break held on to a 1 minute advantage after the frantic chase, and a few kilometres later the gap had been reduced further to just 35 seconds. The chase however was halted at this point as the peleton was weary of giving race favourite Russell Downing (Pinarello) a free ride to the finish line.
An attack from Evan Oliphant saw him and 2 companions attempting to bridge the gap to the leaders, at the front of the race Rob Hayles had struck out for home with 20km still remaining. Oliphant's attempt looked like succeeding but as riders were dropped by Hayles's acceleration the trio were captured which left Hayles alone with 10km to go chased by the last 3 members of the original break that survived. Behind the men in pink and blue fought to the death to bridge in the final kilometres.
Hayles entered the finishing straight alone to take the victory ahead of Peter Kennaugh (100%ME); a mass sprint decided the other placings with Oliphant taking a creditable 15th place.
Results
1. Rob Hayles, Team Halfords Bikehut
2. Peter Kennaugh, 100% ME
3. Dean Downing, Rapha Condor/Recycling
15. Evan Oliphant, Plowman Craven
28. Simon Richardson, Plowman Craven
30. Tom Barras, Plowman Craven
45. Alex Higham, Plowman Craven
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