Daniel Kogan reports:

Isle of Man stage race: points win for Andrew Griffiths

On the 4th, 5th and 6th of May, 5 Glendene juniors and a Glendene youth rider made the trip over to the Isle of Man to take place in the Isle of Man Youth/Junior Tour which consisted of four stages. The first of these stages took place on the Friday evening as over 300 riders in six different categories took to the short prologue that was a 1.2km timetrial along the Douglas promenade.

First to show for Glendene was Joe Perrett, a youth A, rider who posted a time of 1.51 to finish fifth in his category just a second behind the Belgian winner. The next Glendene rider to go off was the junior Sam Webster who produced a 1 min 49 second TT to place him 9th. Daniel Kogan followed next posting a 1 min 55 second finishing in 32nd, not long after John Murphy took to the starting gate and produced a 1 min 59 placing him 49th. The top results were soon to come though as Toby Meadows produced a scintillating ride to place 3rd a mere second behind the winner. Andrew Griffiths also rode to a top 5 position placing 5th. Even with the results spread out all the juniors were within 13 seconds of the leader, Peter Kennaugh.

The second stage began the next morning. Glendene were represented in both the youth A and junior races. The youth race was over a tough 25-mile circuit and although Joe put in a few concerted digs he had to succumb to the ferocious chase. Still though picking up fourth he was still well in contention of the win. The junior’s race was over equally tough terrain and a 65-mile hilly course. Glendene showed early with Andrew getting into the early, race winning break. With the lead hovering around the 2-minute mark the break looked strong as the four riders, some of the strongest in the tour, held their lead upto the finish. With sprint points on all of the 11 laps Andrew managed to win nearly all of them and so secured the green points jersey. Behind the bunch had split with only 20 riders still in it. John unfortunately didn’t make the bunch. Toby, Sam and Daniel though did and tried to slow down and control the bunch along with Team Isle of Man who had the race leader and their team-mate in the break. Coming into the finish and Peter Kennaugh took his second stage victory with Andrew following soon after in 4th with Daniel coming 2 minutes down in 14th, Toby in 17th and Sam in 23rd with John finishing in 41st.

Stage three took place in the evening on a 500 metre crit course with Joe riding well to an 8th place. The juniors were off next and due to failing light the race was cut to 10 mins plus 5 laps. This mean it went off like a bullet and before long the riders were split up into small groups of 3 or 4 riders with Toby placing strongest in 12th followed by Sam in 17th, Andrew in 22nd, John in 34th and Daniel in 47th. Clearly this didn’t suit the team and didn’t reflect the strength of the team. Dutch rider Jetse Bol who out sprinted his breakaway companions won this stage.

The final stage in Port Erin on Sunday afternoon is where all the problems came about. Joe was first to have a taste of the bad luck with a puncture on the wet crit circuit meaning he lost his rhythm and so could only finish 27th so loosing his top 10 placing overall and so finishing on GC in 15th. The juniors faired no better as crashes broke up the field and being stuck behind one left the riders struggling to bridge across to the lead riders and so finishing a lap down. Andrew in 12th, Toby, 20th, John, 22nd, Sam 24th and Daniel 34th. Unfortunately this meant all the riders slipped down the GC with Andrew finishing 6th, Toby 12th, Sam 16th, Daniel, 23rd and John 39th out of a strong 60 rider field. I can honestly say that with a road race instead of the crit these results would have been much more in Glendene’s favour. Yet the tour was not all negative as all riders gave it their all and with Andrew holding on the points jersey and a good showing early in the race it showed great things are to come in the next few races.

Junior Tour of Worcestershire:

First off, representing Glendene, was Andrew who clocked up a respectable 6min 59 seconds for the course putting him in 10th overall. Next off was Daniel Kogan who posted a 7 min 35 second time trial placing him 30th. Sam Webster followed next and placed 12th with a 7 min 6 seconds. The real ride was next to come though as the Isle of Man rider Mark Christian set off. Going like a train and looking ever stronger as the prologue progressed he recorded a stage winning 6 min 46 seconds to beat his nearest challenger by 6 seconds. John was off last out of the Glendene team and came across the line in 41st in a time of 7 min 46 seconds. The team knew we were in for a tough stage that afternoon with a lead to defend and lots of strong challengers it was going to be difficult.

After lunch and the road race began, as did the rain. 70km greeted the riders and with mere seconds between the riders it was to be an eventful stage. Once the neutralised flag dropped after a few km’s the scintillating pace began. With Sam Webster dishing out the pain as he drove the bunch along with John Murphy. Yet even with such a pace four riders managed to clip themselves off the front including danger man and fast sprinter Adam Blythe. Yet Glendene were soon chasing them down as Andrew, Sam, Daniel, Mark and John rode through and off to quickly catch the four escapees.

With all this action and speed in the first lap, averaging over 25mph, it was no surprise that splits began to occur as 16 riders got dropped early into the second lap, fortunately all Glendene riders were still riding strong at the front of the main bunch. With Glendene still covering all the breaks and controlling the race by keeping the pace high Mark’s yellow jersey looked safe. That was until the second to last lap when two of the strongest riders in the race, Mark McNally and Luke Rowe, decided to chance their arm and soon built up a 30-second lead.

The final day, and what was to be the toughest both in weather and terrain. 88km for the riders didn’t seem too bad on paper but that wasn’t taking account of the 1.5 mile climb half way through. Glendene’s plan was one of getting riders up the climb first and securing the win. Winning the £100 King of the Mountains jersey was also of key importance.

Within the first few miles though the attacks started to come as 5 riders began building a 30 second lead over the peloton. Sensing the danger Andrew and another rider decided the bridge over to the break, which they did with some ease. Back in the main bunch and Mark, still in yellow, suffered a mechanical problem with his bike and so, aided by Sam went back to the convoy for assistance. With the hill looming up front Andrew was able to take the King of the Mountains prize with ease. As the bunch began the climb Sam and Daniel hit the front and soon the 40-rider bunch was split drastically with the two Glendene riders leading a bunch of around 8 riders. A little further back Mark tried to bridge the gap alone and further down the hill John climbed with the remnants of the main bunch.

By the time the leaders had reached the next town they had dropped three of the group and these three were soon swallowed up by a chasing group of 11 riders including Sam and Daniel. Riding hard the 11 were closing the two-minute gap to the leaders with Glendene not contributing. Yet with around half an hour to race Daniel got stuck behind a crash and was unable to get back to the chasing group. With a hard pace it was no surprise that Andrew was caught shortly after by the chasing group. With a strong attack by Peter Kennaugh, in the last few miles, winning him the stage and overall, Andrew had to make do for a well deserved 3rd place on the stage with Sam following in 2 minutes later in 11th. Daniel a finished a further minute back in 15th, Mark 4 minutes behind Daniel in 24th and John 4 minutes behind Mark in 29th. Even loosing the race overall Glendene rode strongly finishing with Andrew 4th overall, Sam 11th, Daniel 15th, Mark 19th and John 28th.