Jonny Croston 4th in National Clarion Road Race

Jonny Croston (left) edged out of a Clarion podium place by Nottingham’s Michael Jones (2nd right)

Arrived at the circuit to see plenty of Clarion colours on show including Nottingham, Stockport, North Cheshire, Saddleworth, Malmesbury (I’ve never heard of it either!), West Lothian, Fenland, Heanor and Crewe. As usual there was plenty of ‘bling’ on show with carbon wheels aplenty whilst I rocked up on my trusty 1997 aluminium trek complete with odd wheels and a new inner tube after the valve disintegrated when I tried to inflate the rear tyre.

I did a few laps of the circuit to warm up. It’s essentially a 1.5 mile triangle with one hairpin and two more gradual bends with a finishing straight that gradually rises uphill. There was a pretty stiff breeze that meant a tail wind after the first corner, a cross wind for the 2nd ‘straight’ and a cross headwind up the finishing stretch.

After a brief introduction the over 50s were set off and allowed to get 3/4 of a lap before the main field was released. There were 35 starters and it was clear from the start that Nottingham with 7 or 8 riders were going to be strong along with Andy Parr of Revolution Fitness.

It wasn’t long before the attacks started usually involving Nottingham and Andy Parr.  Fairly early on I managed to latch onto  an attempted break by what seemed to be a strong group with a number of Nottingham riders and Andy Parr and a gap began to open. The break lasted a couple of laps before the main field chased it down and everything came back together.

Nottingham Clarion Riders massing on the front. Courtesy Notts Clarion Web Site.

The pace started to grow again as we approached 75 mins and the last 5 laps. There were more sustained attacks and with the catching of lapped riders there were opportunities to attack in the confusion. After chasing a couple of attacks I was having a breather in what remained of the bunch when I realised that 3 riders, including Paul Searsons (Nottingham) Andy Parr and Joe Clarke (Fenland) had got a decent gap. Nottingham riders were again massed at the front and there was no chase. I made a sustained effort to chase but it was clear that hardly any other riders were willing to come through and the gap had grown too big to attempt to bridge in the headwind. I swung off and waited to see if any of the other teams would try and close the gap.