Race Results

10/05/2012 - JOHN MARSHALL'S ABBERLEY BLOG

Location :

Results :

D Category John Marshall reports:

This is my favourite race on the calendar and I am very grateful to the organiser Mike Amery and his excellent team of helpers. The event went off very smoothly and without any conflicts with local farmers.

This year’s race saw a return to the events tougher origins of hilly courses with a final sting in the tail. The event was fully subscribed with many of the fittest and most committed riders there, many with Mallorcan miles in their legs, especially those nearing retirement age.

The temperatures were more appropriate to February than May with the warmest morning being eight degrees C. Things kicked off with a point eight mile hill climb prologue or about two and a half to three minutes of lung busting discomfort. Fortunately we did have a tail wind which was much appreciated. Andy Donaldson powered up the climb in 2:26 to take the win with a good effort from the evergreen Alan Kemp in fourth with 2:32.


The second stage began after around an hour and a half’s recovery with an undulating circuit which saw a break establish quite early containing Phil Rose and Martin Russell. The bunch became very tactical with many failed attempts at escape and too many similarly matched men. There was no organised chase. Russell had proved too sprightly for Rose on the final climb and he took a comfortable win and the leader’s jersey while Rose held off the bunch by around a minute. Donaldson took the gallop as a game Richard Booth was swamped in the last few yards.

Stage three saw another chilly morning but with six climbs of Woodbury Hill to encounter, cold was the least of our problems. After many early skirmishes a break finally stuck with a classic counter by Malcolm Whitehead and John French. It took a further lap of attrition before Donaldson and Rob Whitfield escaped and made the union. All four were cramping on the final climb to the finish but Donaldson again proved the strongest to take the win and recover the jersey from Russell who covered so many early moves that his legs finally gave up on the penultimate climb and he lost minutes on the field. Kemp made a good move and held off the bunch on the last lap.


The final day was forecast rain and with two laps of the very hilly Clows Top circuit to cover, there were a few serious faces. John Marshall escaped at the bottom of the descent and was joined by Rose and Kev Shand. They drew out a significant lead along the lumpy valley road and began tackling the biggest climbs of the tour. The bunch responded and such was the ferocity that a split was caused with Rob Whitfield being the only major contender to miss it. The break was caught at the end of the lap at Clows Top. The overly large break was working spasmodically with some tactical riding and a few heated exchanges. The climb up to Abberley village saw some attacks all of which were covered by Donaldson. Finally a big effort by Kemp about 150m from the sharp turn at the top of the Abberley climb saw him pull Donaldson and Rutherford away leaving five men to fight for the minor placings. Kemp took a well deserved victory on the day.
Donaldson cemented another fine performance taking the overall GC classification with John French second and Malcolm Whitehead third. Kemp was fourth on GC easily taking the overall E category and Richard Booth the F.