The Newbald circuit is a climbers’ race, and so it turned out. 40 riders started over three groups:

Group one: Dave Millson, Jason Young, Carl Martin, James Gullen, Paul Cutsworth, Wayne Nicholson, Daniel Wright, Andrew Yeomans, Ben Bell, Craig Medcalf, Paul Waddington, Gareth Taylor, and Colin Baldwin

Group two, with a four minute advantage, comprised Steve Macklin, Mark Ollerenshaw, Ian Chapman, John Galway, Rob Powell, John Askew, Paul Noton, Rob Busby, David Brearley, John Brearley, Matthew Enticknap, Paul Hickman and Lee Watson

Another two minutes saw the scratch group leave who were Peter Fielding-Smith, Chris Daddy, Jason Shipton, James Wagstaff, Matthew Fenton, Kit Gilham, Phil Holwell, Martin Smith, Mark Wordsworth, Ben Roberts, Steve Ward, Alastair Kay, and Nathan Wilson.

First back were Gareth Taylor and James Gullen, opened up a gap of nearly a minute on six other riders, the rest of group one were spread over the climb. A similar situation in group two, five riders coming over the top led by Paul Noton, the rest spattered down the hill. The scratch group was also split in two, five riders, Kit Gilham, Ali Kay, Mark Wordsworth, Nathan Wilson and Martin Smith had a 20 second lead over five others which included Steve Ward who was leading the points race. Chris Daddy, Matt Fenton and Ben Roberts had been spat out the back and retired not much later, as did Steve Ward saying that no way could he hang on to Kit Gilham who had recently won the KoM in the Irish Ras and showing everyone else how to climb.

Lap two and Gullen and Taylor still working well together off the front with Gullen taking the Prime. The scratch group, well four of them (Nathan Wilson had slipped back) had engulfed group two and were three minutes behind the two leaders, half of what they started with – at half way.

On lap three the picture was similar. To prove they were sharing the work Taylor took the prime this time from Gullen, and they still had a minute advantage over the business-like scratch quartet. The rest came up mostly alone, almost like watching a time trial.

The final lap and the two breakaways were caught before Newbald and they stayed with the leaders until the steep part of the climb. The other four battled on side by side, all had worked well for this and finished with an excellent sprint. Gilham looked pleased to beat the others, he’d failed to shake them off and he knew they were formidable opponents in a finish, I think he deserved it. There was also applause for the two fourth cats who followed them in; a real adventure for them today. Mark Wordsworth takes over the points lead from Steve Ward and Ali Kay. Next event in a fortnight’s time is on the Etton circuit.