Tommy turns on the Power as Strada riders fight off all challengers
Norwich rider Tommy Power, left, wins the Ike Saul Road Race from Colin Bailey, right, and Morris Bacon. Picture: James Fletcher. - Credit: Archant
Tommy Power charged to a sprint win in the Ike Saul Memorial Road Race in Cambridgeshire with Strada team-mate Morris Bacon getting third – despite being marked men following their one-two success in Essex the previous week.
Every time the green-clad Strada members attacked, their rivals would hang on to them, do or die. In the end the race came down to a bunch sprint.
Though Power is no fan of close combat he described how: 'A gap opened up on the right-hand side of the road and I went for it' – and the Norwich man won by a tiny margin from Colin Bailey (North Road CC) with Bacon inches behind.
What was a triumph for Power was a brave failure for 'Titch' Richards of VC Baracchi, for which you can blame the Romans.
With about 15 minutes of racing left, the Lowestoft rider was away alone with fairly comfortable 40 seconds lead.
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But on dead straight Roman Ermine Street he was still intermittently in sight of the bunch and with that carrot, and little wind to split them, the bunch worked together and reeled Richards in with just two kilometres to go.
Earlier in the race, Liam Gentry (VC Baracchi) and Martin Smith (London Phoenix) had made a promising – but ultimately unsuccessful – break and there was another dig from Great Yarmouth Strada rider Zak Coleman.
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Top category roadmen contested the Jock Wadley race near Colchester, but benign, near windless, conditions and a 28mph race average saw even this class field fail to break up. With 60 riders still together in the last half-mile there was a touch of wheels and in the resulting crash Kenninghall rider Tom Fitzpatrick sustained a break to his elbow.
At the front of the sprint Steele Van Hoff (One-Pro), just arrived from Australia, outsprinted Graham Briggs (JLT Condor) and Junior Jacob Vaughan (VC Londres).
Thetford rider Lee Woodcock (HKR, 53:12) was top Norfolk finisher in the CC Sudbury Hilly 22-mile time trial on a Lavenham-Hadleigh-Monks Eleigh circuit. In near-perfect conditions the win went to Wickham Market junior Lyster Romero (Wigmore CC, 49:20).
