Race Previews Clayton Velo Spring Classic
Another of the long-running early season British road races is the Clayton Spring Classic. Sunday 26th ofFebruary is the date for this year’s 46th edition.
The promoting club, Clayton Velo, changed the format of their race around 10 years ago, switching from a massed start scratch race to a handicapped event. Since the change, the race has gone from strength to strength, still attracting the top riders as it always has but it also pulls in a full field of riders with 4th Cats and Juniors looking to mix it with the Pros and Elite riders.
The 2011 race saw a dead heat finish, Dean Downing (RaphaCondorSharp) and TomMurray (Sigma Sport) proving inseparable in the final sprint.
This year, the organisers will be letting the Juniors head off first, giving them a seven minute, 30 seconds advantage over the final group to start. The riders will be tackling an approximately 4- mile circuit near Clitheroe, a rolling course which will test the riders over the total race distance of 55 miles.
Early lap primes give the early starters plenty of incentives before the Pro scratch group reel in their deficit. Amongst those Junior riders will be the newly crowned Revolution Future Stars Track Champion, Jake Ragan, who will be racing for the Champion Systems/Maxgear team. The MountivationAcademy have also entered several riders in this category.
The Pros’ group includes seven RaphaCondorSharp riders, including Kristian House and Dean Downing, Sigma Sport rider TomMurray and Dave Clarke (Node4 Giordana). There are more RCS riders in the Under 23 category, as well as plenty of the Vanilla Bikes squad.
Clayton Velo Spring Classic Handicap HQ will be Eddisford Junior School, Clitheroe, with the race starting at 10am.
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Dean Downing (Rapha Condor Sharp) drives the bunch forward Clayton Velo Handicap 2010, © Charles Linkison
Course Details Boot Camp
The Mountivation Academy Junior team, who will be racing at the Clayton Velo Handicap, have produced this video of their first training get together
http://vimeo.com/35578949
The riders will start on the unclassified road 1 mile east of Hodder Bridge, and then proceed towards Hodder Bridge. After turning left at first cross roads they will then continue to junction with B6243, turn left onto B6243 (direction Clitheroe) then turn sharp left at junction 150m from Eddissford bridge. After that the race will continue towards Bashall to turn left at the junction back onto the start and finish straight. Repeat for a further 13 laps.
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