Tilley in top three at ninth round of Moreton criterion series
Team Ridebike.co.uk rode an aggressive ninth round of the TLI criterion series at Moreton on Thursday (July 7), netting third place for Ro Tilley and a top 10 finish for Jon Hayes.
Tilley launched a powerful sprint in a lunge for the finishing line, finishing just metres behind race winner Will Stephenson (Bournemouth Arrow) and second-placed man Jay Eastwood (Hargroves Cycles).
Tilley’s top three finish capped an impressive team performance from the Ride boys, who launched attacks throughout the race.
He said: “I was happy with that. The team worked well. I was within half a wheel of Jay Eastwood and he was within half a wheel of Will.”
Average speeds topped 25mph on a still night of racing held in near perfect conditions on the flat 1.2-mile circuit near Wool.
Ride’s Simon Willats attacked on lap six, staying ahead for a lap-and-a-half while his teammates controlled the pace in the scratch group.
“We kept everyone together while we sent Simon up the road. We sat there and let them try and close, and then we went again. Jay Eastwood came with me. When we were caught, Mark went,” said Tilley.
Some 40 riders took to the circuit in five different categories, with the 14-strong “red” group of elite riders soon catching those in the slower groups.
Ride’s Mark Chadbourne was among those to launch an attack from the head of the elite group, but eased out of the finishing sprint with thoughts of next weekend’s national mtb cross country championships in Yorkshire uppermost in his mind.
He said: “We caught the other groups quite quickly. Our group worked well together. It quickly got down to a working group with people who knew what they were doing and got on with doing it. It was good racing.”
An eighth placed finish for Jon Hayes capped a strong performance from Ride Bike UK. Hayes praised his competitors, describing the event as “more of a race than a procession.”
He said: “We were all having a go and Simon stayed away for a lap. The average speed was 25.5mph. It was quite feisty. There were a lot of attacks. A lot of people had a dig tonight - too much Tour De France on the television!”
Friends of Ride, Brett Edbrook and Tim O’Rourke, put in strong performances in the green and blue groups respectively.
Edbrook, who raced his Ride-supplied M Cipollini FB800 for the first time, spent a lap at the front of the red group after the green group he had led for most of the race was caught. O’Rourke was unlucky to pull a foot from his pedal in the closing laps.
Pictures used by courtesy of Eamonn Deane. Many thanks, Eamonn!
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