PTW

Dan Pearson won the junior award today, and beat some top junior competition. well done Dan

Wow! That is fantastic news. Well done Danny boy.

Must mention a top ride by James today, unfortunatly i wasnt there to witness his epic attack from the gun but Rhys tells me he was amazing. Well done James.

Well done Dan its a long time since we had a Welsh Junior road champion in the club

fantastic, well done dan.

Congratulations Dan, and well done to James, Hefin, Curtis and Mark - you guys clearly had a plan today and rode like men to make it happen.

Brilliant Dan, well done, and well done to all the PTW's. It looked like a tough day.

Well done Dan and the rest of the Team. Nice photos and report on welshcycling.co.uk

|The story in more detail

22nd May 2011 - Ogmore Vale Life CentRE
Pictures courtesy of Mark Alexander and Megan Backstedt
Report - Rob Powell

A tough circuit combined with windy conditions made the 2011 Welsh Road Race Championships one of the best in years.

64 riders would have opened their curtains to 40mph gusts of wind and horizontal rain but this did not stop the riders from putting on one of the best races the Welsh Championships has seen in years.

In the race... an early break attacked straight away including James Lewis (PTW), Paul Tucker (TVR) and one of the juniors. They got a decent lead on the downhill section towards Bryncethin, but Lewis decided to go on alone. Behind, the strong tail/cross wind was causing the bunch to splinter coming across the common. Team UK Youth forced the pace up to 40mph and formed echelons across the bunch which inevitably caused some huge splits. By the time the race reached the turn point at Talbot Green 7 riders had gone clear from the bunch and joined up with James Lewis, making a break of 8 including Gruff Lewis and Magnus Backstedt with two other Team UK Youth teammates, Brendan Sullivan (Ajax), Hugh Wilson (Wilier), Dale Appleby (Metaltek) and James Lewis. Behind them the bunch was in shreds with riders spread across the road, scrambling to try to stay in the wheels and get back in contact.


Team UK Youth used the tailwind early on in the race to desimate the field

Into the headwind back across the common the speed dropped dramatically, but Team UK Youth kept driving the break and it was pretty clear that they would not be brought back. By the time they hit the mountain for the first time the lead was already about 2 minutes. Behind, the main reaction was coming from Ben Simmons (Wiggle), Anthony O'Boyle (Torq), Dan Pearson (PTW) and Owain Doull (Hargroves). Up front James Lewis was struggling a little on the mountain, but kept fighting bravely to stay with the lead selection. Finally on the third time over the pass the elastic snapped and he dropped back to the chasers. The other seven stayed together in front.

Behind, Simmons eventually took off on his own to chase the leaders - but the gap had grown to 5 minutes by this time. Simmons put in one of the performances of the day to battle up to within 20 seconds of the group but was agonisingly unable to close the final few metres and get himself back into contention. He was unable to rejoin because just when he was closest the lead group began to make the decision of which would take the gold medal - with just under 2 laps to go it was Magnus Backstedt that split the group with a huge attack at the bottom of the descent.


The chasers were joined by Juniors Dan Pearson and Owain Doull


Performance of the day went to Ben Simmons and his brave chase attempt


Magnus drove hard through the southern part of the circuit and built up a decent lead, but we suspected he was just softening up the others for the real final move, and that came at the same point on the next lap from Gruff Lewis who was followed by Brendan Sullivan. The pair worked together well and got about a minute clear of the rest of the break coming into the final section through Ogmore Vale. The two turned into the closed-road finishing section together, then Gruff Lewis kicked hard on the slight uphill to the finishing line to come in just in front of Sullivan for the gold medal. The group sprint for third was won by Nikolas Gustavson.

The junior race finished slightly earlier up on top of the mountain, where Dan Pearson of Port Talbot Wheelers took a deserved victory after being at the head of the racing all day, ahead of Matt Haase and Matt Thompson (both Cardiff JIF)

An emotional Gruff Lewis was overjoyed with his victory at the finish line 'I am really pleased, i didnt think i had it in me today. The team worked really well today, I could not be happier'.

Dan Pearson of Port Talbot Wheelers said 'I am really pleased with my ride today, stuck on Juniors gears with a tail wind like that made it hard to stay in there but i managed to stay with a good group and get the win. I really liked the course and suited me today'.

Both riders are first time Champions and will certainly be names to watch in the future.

Senior Men:
1. Gruff Lewis - UK Youth
2. Brendan Sullivan - Cardiff AJAX
3. Nikolas Gustavson - UK Youth

Junior Men:
1. Dan Pearson - Port Talbot Wheelers
2. Matt Haase - Cardiff JIF
3. Matt Thompson - Cardiff JIF

I here james had a real crack at it, on a course not really suited to him. I love riders like that. PIP you must be really proud of {your little boy}. STUART.