Corley-Cervelo leader Gaywood "gutted" at Tour Series omission

Corley-Cervelo leader Gaywood "gutted" at Tour Series omission

Corley-Cervelo leader Simon Gaywood has admitted to being "gutted" at Corley-Cervelo's surprise Tour Series omission.Wilier were the surprise ones left in the cold last year; instead, they were arguably the surprise picks for 2011.

"You're never assured being one of the smaller teams, but I thought we had a reasonable chance. I don't know why they make certain decisions," the former Elite Crit Series winner told CW.

"Past the top five or six teams, I think it's very close; beyond the top six, it's hard to say ‘we're deserve it more than any other team'. It's not fair to start slagging off Pendragon or Wilier or whoever; we deserved to be there just as much as the other teams."

However, they will be riding two rounds as a wild card team, and Gaywood is keen to impress. "It's a great series and I love riding it. Hopefully we can get some good results, be consistent and hopefully that'll warrant a place next year."

Gaywood himself is pinpointing the Elite Crit Series and Premier Calendar. "Training won't be so banzai, it means we can stick a stronger team in. You can't physically train for both road races and crits," he said, referring to the hectic June racing schedule.

Junior GB girls win in Holland

The girls Olympic Development Programme picked up two wins this week with Elinor Barker winning last Saturday's Omloop van Strijen, while Amy Roberts triumphed in the Beker van Vlaanderen twenty four hours later.

Six ODP riders - Elinor Barker, Hannah Barnes, Lucy Garner, Hannah Layland, Harriet Owen and Amy Roberts - were joined by five of Talent Team members for both events.

"Obviously it was a very good weekend, and both teams really delivered in both races," said British Cycling coach Matt Winston. "The racing was hard and fast but the girls were tactically strong and did everything we wanted them to."

Barker made the winning break in the final ten kilometres of the Omloop van Strijen and was helped to victory by the other British riders, who policed the bunch brilliantly.

With both youth and junior riders competing together in the 60km Beker van Vlaanderen, Winston challenged the teams to ride against each other.

Amy Roberts broke clear on lap two with Celine Van Severen (Sengers Ladies). They quickly gained a minute over the peloton, and stayed away until the end. Roberts won the sprint by some margin, with Lucy Garner making it a British one-three on the podium.

Talent Team's Emily Kay took seventh in the bunch sprint, making her the third Brit on the podium by virtue of being the highest youth finisher.

McLay gets first season win in Belgian U23 race

British junior national champion Dan McLay bagged his first win for Belgian team Omega-Pharma-Lotto Davo yesterday in the GP Stad Waregem in Belgium.

He won the U23 race in a sprint from ten other riders. A group of five riders rode clear early on in the race, and McLay bridged the gap to them along with eleven others.

This group splintered towards the end of the race, and McLay had easily the strongest sprint of the eleven that led at the end, which included promising Belgian talent Sean de Bie.

"As a fast sprinter, I knew I had to save my energy for the home straight," McLay said after the race. "I cam out in an ideal position for the last corner and the sprint."

McLay will be pleased to have picked up his first win so soon after moving to Belgium. He joined Omega-Pharma-Lotto development team this year having raced with Hargroves Cycles last year.

Dibben wins in Wales

Jon Dibben won the Cadence Road Race, the opening round of the National Junior Road Series last Sunday.

The Hargroves Cycles rider rode strongly throughout, first bridging a gap to a breakaway group before soloing to victory in Brecon.

What made the win more impressive is that the Hargroves Cycles rider only began training in January following an ankle injury sustained during the cyclo-cross season.

Alex Peters (CC Hackney) took second, having been in the decisive escape group that went away on the second of an eight laps around the village of Bronllys. Alistair Slater made it a Hargroves one-three, with Brennan Townshend (Team South West) winning the King of the Mountains competition.

The series continues with the Junior Tour of Bristol (April 9 - 10).

New British U23 team blooded in Croatia

New British U23 team Forme Procycliste San Lamere returned this week from their first taste of action at two UCI races in Croatia.

The team competed first in the one-day Porec Trophy and four days later in the Istrian Spring Trophy - a four-day stage race.

The Istrian Spring Trophy in particular saw a high-quality field and some ferocious racing. Amongst the riders were representatives of Rabobank Continental Team and Katusha as well as a certain Michael Rasmussen, now riding for Danish continental team Christina Watches-Onfone.

The race saw descent speeds of up to 100kph and two stages with challenging, steep uphill cobbled finishes.

Steven Gallagher placed 71st overall, with Jack Adams in 97th and Dexter Gardias in 126th.

Former rider Rob Orr commented: "It was part of targeting races later on in the season - the Rás and Rutland in particular, as they're races of similar lengths.""It was also good for the lads to see the standard they want to ride at. Without the rhythm of that kind of racing in our legs, I think we did really well."

Women's sports clubs to race in the Cycletta Club Challenge

Cycletta, the series of women's only sportives supported and promoted by Victoria Pendleton, has launched the Cycletta Club Challenge.

The Club Challenge will see sports clubs from any sport encouraged to enter a team into the events. The clubs will then race to decide which sport is the fastest on two wheels.  

Teams entering the Club Challenge will be made up of five participants or more, with their times averaged to give the clubs' Challenge times.

Cycletta has so far announced that it will be holding two sportives this summer - one at Tatton Park, Cheshire on 26 June, and the other at Whipsnade Zoo, Bedfordshire, on 11 September. The events will be forty kilometres in length and open to women only, in order to promote cycling and fitness amongst British women. Cyclists of all abilities are invited to ride.