A Week in the life of Gavin Mitchell - 05/06/2009

27.05.09: Cycle Kingdom 6 Eelmore

I have never raced at Eelmore before and had heard some good things about it so I decided to check it out. Eelmore is a pan flat 1 mile closed road circuit, the course comprises of two long straights with hairpin bends at each end.

The race started off quite slow and as it went on a couple of attacks went in but no-one managed to get away. With 5 laps to go I was in a great position for the sprint.

Coming out of the final bend I was so eager to sprint I miss judged where the finish line was and went too early. Into the wind my legs gave up with 20 meters to go and I reckon I came across the line in around 6th place.

A couple of days after the race the results were published to my surprise I wasn’t even in the top ten. 
After a couple of e-mails to the organiser he reviewed the results and I was placed 8th which I suppose is better than nothing.

30.05.09: Herne Hill Dernyfest

I decided not to race Friday night at Welwyn and save my legs for the Dernyfest.

The Dernyfest is derny racing where the rider rides behind the derny bike, the derny bike looks like a vintage motorcycle and it can reach a top speed of around 40mph plus.

It was an incredible hot day and I was struggling in the heat with my long sleeve skin suit.

My Heat was 10k which is 22 laps of the track, I was paced by Sean Bannister. The first few laps where pretty steady and I was quite comfortable.

At about half distance Bryan Taylor and Co started attacking and Sean’s experience decided to let them go and to be honest I was struggling at that point anyway.

I was quite disappointed with coming home in 7th because I would have liked to challenge for the final not the minor final.

Heat 2
9 Matt GITTINGS AW Cycles George GILBERT 1
23 Bryan TAYLOR VC Londres Colin DENMAN 2
17 Boyd ROBERTS Planet X Doug PINKERTON 3
18 Johannes ROUX Climb on Bikes Rob JEFFERIES 4
10 Philip GLOWINSKI VC Londres Derek MARLOE 5
5 Alex CHRISTIANS London Pheonix Clive STURGEON 6
16 Gavin MITCHELL Twickenham CC Sean BANNISTER 7
2 Anthony BRISTOW San Fairy Anne CC Graham BRISTOW 8

I drew my position for the minor final and got the worse possible draw you could get 9th which was one but last in the line of derny’s.

The Minor Final was twice the distance of my heat 20k/44 laps.

The first few laps were quite slow and the race bunched up a bit.

After a few more laps the race began to string out and Sean did a great job of spotting a gap and moving me up to second position.

In the second half of the race the field was spread all over the track some riders getting lapped multiple times. I was at the back of the five leaders which included former Twickenham member Jeff Baird.

With 15 laps to go whilst moving around a back marker I started to feel the pace a bit and briefly lost the back of the derny, luckily Sean noticed and I got back on the derny without losing much speed and carried onto the finish.

I was much more satisfied with the 5th place in the minor final and talking with Sean afterwards we were hitting speeds of 30mph in places.

Minor Final
10 Philip GLOWINSKI VC Londres Derek MARLOE 1
21 Miles STOVOLD Dulwich Paragon CC Rob JEFFERIES 2
1 Jeff BAIRD GS Metro Doug PINKERTON 3
5 Alex CHRISTIANS London Pheonix Clive STURGEON 4
16 Gavin MITCHELL Twickenham CC Sean BANNISTER 5
3 Keith BUGDEN Pearson Cycles Scott BUGDEN 6
13 Mario MANELFI AD Cycles George GILBERT 7
15 Joanne McRAE VC Londres Colin DENMAN 8
2 Anthony BRISTOW San Fairy Anne CC Graham BRISTOW 9
8 Mike DIGGINS Gregarios Cycliste Keith ELLIOT DNF

01.06.09 Reading Track League

The Twickenham were represented by Me, Rob Drinkwater and Dave (off the front then off the back) Jack.

It was kierin night at Reading and Rob did a great ride leaving all of his other competitors behind to get through to the final.

In the next heat were myself and Dave, I managed to get behind the Derny but once the derny pulled off World Master Sprint Champion Lee Povey and Co flew past, I finished fourth in the heat Dave finishing sixth.

In the Kierin Final Rob had a good start but got passed by Lee Povey and Sam Serruya in the final moments to finish third.

Our Chairman Dave Peck made his first appearance but sadly missed the start but provided good support to everyone.

In the 20k Dave went for one of he usual early attacks taking three others with him.
I did a turn on the front and as I was trying to get back into the string, attacks when in, I got caught in between groups and couldn’t get back on so I decided to pack in. Dave couldn’t keep up the pace and eventually pulled out.

03.06.09: Cycle Kingdom 7 Eelmore

My fourth race in 7 days and my intensions for the race was to be a bit more positive and maybe go on the offensive.

Before my race was the youth event and Declan Higgins came home in third place.

Declan then lined up with me in the 3/4 race.

Off the line attacks went in and two riders got away and they stayed away the whole race.
The early race pace was very high and Declan was up front contributing to the pace and chasing breaks down.

As the race went on I was feeling terrible so my initial plan of being more offensive was scrapped and I was just focusing on finishing.

In the final stages of the race Declan found the pace a bit hard and was dropped but battled on to finish the race.

With three laps to go I started to move up the field. On the bell a couple of riders attacked, I was placed third or fourth at the front of the bunch chasing down the attack which was dangling a few seconds away.

We came around the final bend and I went for it, as I was approaching the line I caught two of the riders but got piped by another rider on the line.

In the end I finished 6th which I am very pleased with as I was really struggling at some points during the race.

3/4
1 - Chris Clark York Cycle Works - 3
2 - Roger Fowkes - Hillingdon Triathletes - 3
3 - Andy Hibberd - Pedalon.co.uk - 3
4 - Gavin Morton - Charlotteville CC - 3
5 - Gareth Dickinson - Farnborough & Camberley CC - 3
6 - Gavin Mitchell - Twickenham CC - 3J
7 - James Bracey - VC Meudon - 4
8 - Ralph Carter - London Dynamo - 3V
9 - Mark Edwards - Hillingdon Triathletes - 3
10 - Paul Cooper - Reading CC - 3V

Youths Races
1 - Charlie Fawke - HSS - A
2 - Lawrence Carpenter - HSS - A
3 - Declan Higgins - Twickenham CC - A

Next up is Welwyn Track League on Friday night. 

Report with pictures can be found here.


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