An incredibly strong field turned up to the start line of the Bath CC Regional A Road Race ready to take on 8 laps of the Stowey circuit.   With 78% of the riders in the field being 2nd category and 44 of the 80  under 23, everyone believed they had a chance of winning the race.   The weather was perfect and everything was set for a blistering fast race.

The race was deneutralised on the ascent of Stowey – Tom Williams of NoPinz Motip Race Team (and also 2nd claim Bath CC) attacked from the gun, opening up a 15 second lead.  A small group containing Archie Cross of Bristol RC and Ben Stockdale of Cotswold Cycles RT tried to bridge across but could not close the gap.  The peloton were a further 25 seconds behind.

At the end of the first lap Tom was caught by 3 riders, this slowly increased as Ben Millar of Primera-TeamJobs, Ewan Warren of Mid Devon CC and Joe Griffiths of SCOTT Racing also made the juncture.  By the end of the 2nd lap the break had grown to 11 and the gap had increased to a minute.  With the major teams of Nopinz Motip Race Team, Primera-TeamJobs, Cotswold Cycles RT and Foran CCC being represented, it was up to the individuals in the chasing pack of 50 riders to coordinate themselves.

The leading group had the 73 Degrees KOM competition to think about and Ben Millar, Ben Stockdale and Tom Williams shared the points on Laps 1 and 3 after which Ben Stockdale had a small lead over Tom with Ben Millar in 3rd.

The lack of coordination in the bunch meant that the gap kept extending by 20 seconds a lap until it reached a peak of just over 2 minutes after 5 laps.   A few riders tried to bridge across Matthew Clayton of Bath Uni tried on lap 2 and got close, Will Duffy of Bath CC was out in front for a lap with a 25 second lead – but still 20 seconds behind the leading group.

The 73 Degrees KOM competition was still going on with points every other lap.  Ben Millar obviously decided that this was his competition and took maximum points on the 5th and 7th laps to win this competition with 21 points ahead of Ben Stockdale on 17.

After 5 laps the break started to look at each other and slowed from 14min 15 second laps (43km/hr) to 15minute laps(40km/hr).  The peloton increased their speed and started to close the gap,and  by the end of the 7th lap they were only one minute behind and closing rapidly.

The breakaway kept on pushing on the final lap and still held their minute advantage going into the final corner and heading up Stowey for the 9th time.

Tom Williams held his nerve and power and finished with a devastating burst of over 10 w/kg for the last 70 seconds to take the win in a time of 1 hr 59min 12 secs (line to line) from Ewan Warren Mid Devon CC in 2nd place,  Ben Millar Primera-TeamJobs in 3rd and Irfan Zaman Spirit BSS in 4th.  Alexandre Touche of Pontypool RCC and Scott Redding of SRCT MUC-OFF made a push from the Peloton to almost catch the break but came up a few seconds short.

Matthew Gilmour Velo Club Venta, Will Duffy Bath Cycling Club and Morgan Curle Pronto Bikes were the strongest of the bunch and finished 14th, 15th and 16th respectively.

A strava effort comparison for 8 laps of Stowey – Morgan Curle is the black line and represents the bunch.

I have looked back at the history of races that have been run on this circuit and using strava data from the 8 Laps of Stowey, it would appear that this is the quickest ever race up Stowey, just under 2 minutes quicker than 2019 and a full 6 1/2 minutes quicker than the National B’s from 2016 (it has to be said that they were 10 lap races and raced in March).

Bath CC Regional A Aug 2022  01:59:12 – Av Speed 41km/hr  – Won by Tom Williams

Bath CC Regional A July 2021  02:03:26 – Av Speed 39.5km/hr – Won by

Bath CC Regional A August 2019 02:01:04 – Av Speed 40.4km/hr – Won by Hayden Burton

Severn Bridge Road Race National B March 2016 (First 8 of 10 Laps) – 02:05:50 (38.9km/hr) – Conor Swift’s time

Severn Bridge Road Race National B  March 2015 (First 8 of 10 Laps) – 02:09:10 (37.9km/hr) – Rory Townsend’s time

Bristol South Road Race Regional B March 2019- 02:20:42 (34.8km/hr) – Rob Pear’s Winning Time

Bristol South Road Race Regional B March 2018 – 02:13:33 (36.6km/hr) – Andrew Kirby’s Winning Time

This data is all from Strava and subjected to strava and gpx file errors.

Not only was it an incredibly fast race, but also strength in depth with 55 of the 75 starters making it to the finish within touching distance of the front of the race – Congratulations to all who took on the race.

Foran CC won the team competition with 51 points just ahead of Primera-TeamJobs with 54 points

Thanks to our Sponsors – Abel + Imray, NoPinz Motip Race Team, Pronto Bikes, 73 Degrees -, the commissaires Diane and Steve Marshall and Pete Deamer, NEG, Accredited Marshalls and 20 volunteers from Bath CC for putting on this event.

Thanks to Dave Atkinson of road.cc for the photos

https://photos.app.goo.gl/vmaLkUvCAu2xWS1n7

The results are at

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vT9sQfY6kRKHL4QW-cGZ_bUpx0y64LZZnS_LtyQOfCNF0oo2Ssry45w2-Vpsw_nm1fvjuNXr3bo6arX/pubhtml

73 Degrees KOM Competition