2010 Isle of Man International Youth Tour – Race Report

The 2010 edition of the Junior and Youth Tour took place between Friday 30 April and Sunday 2^nd May saw 23 riders from Eastland’s and  Sportcity travel to the Island for a great weekend of racing which included a prologue time trial, road and circuit races.  

The racing started with a time trial along Douglas prom with 242 riders in all categories riding the 1.2km blast.  The times gradually came down as we progressed from the U8 to the Juniors with all our riders posting good times and setting themselves for the next day’s racing.

Day 2 saw everyone preparing for the infamous Ellerslie road race with its fast corners, 50mph downhill run and the killer climbs to the top of the course.  The U8 and U10 got underway with a slightly shortened course but still including the killer climb.  Coming to the crest of the hill saw Matthew Baptista 2nd in the U8 boys and Olivia Braybrooke 1^st in the U8 Girls and taking the pink Jersey.  In the U10 Kim Baptista managed to lose a chain on the fast downhill section but still finishing well but with over one minute down on 1^st place.  Lewis Hartley Hartley finished a very credible 4^th in his first tour.

The U12 saw ‘team Eastlands’ of Matthew Braybrooke, Leighton Sharman, Matthew Walls and Adam Hartley take control of the race. Coming up the final hill saw a huge struggle between Adam and Leighton with Matthew Walls just taking the win from Leighton and Adam thereby moving Matthew into the Yellow jersey which Leighton had gained from the previous day’s time trial. 

The U14’s followed with 4 laps for a total of 30km around the course. A strong start saw a breakaway of four riders including Christian Braybrooke, with Bryn Davies chasing hard and Alex Braybrooke in the following peloton.  The race continued in a similar pattern for a couple of laps and with Bryn Davies making a huge effort to bridge the gap to Christian, but with the yellow jersey and another rider breaking away to create a 2mn gap. The final sprint up the hill saw Bryn gap Christian for a great 6th place and Christian 7^th with Alex breaking away from the peloton in a sprint finish.

The U16 and U14 Girls rode together with Melissa Bury part of a breakaway group which quickly formed, whilst Jess Anderson, Moira Davies and India Penrice all rode with their respective age group pelotons.  The hills soon broke the groups up and it wasn’t long before riders where scattered throughout the circuit.  The final hill in the U16 saw Melissa contesting the sprint and taking 3^rd place and retaining her 3^rd place in GC

The u16 boys race saw a high class field with 6 riders from Sportcity taking to the line, albeit 3 of them riding under the colours of the NW Division.  A group of 15 riders soon broke away including Jake Ragan, Chris Lawless and Chris Latham.  This group pretty well stayed together for the 40km race so it was down to the final gallop up the Ellerslie hill with Chris Latham just taking it to move into the yellow jersey and Jake Ragan taking 6^th to move up into contention for a top 3 in GC.  Further back in the field but with great rides from Will Thomas , Ben Green and Josh Penrice. 

Day three of the tour was a move to the National Sports Centre and racing on the newly surfaced 0.85km circuit.   The U8 and U10 got the racing going.  It wasn’t long before Kim was part of the leading boys group knowing that she has over a minute to make up after the mishap on the previous day.  At the same time Olivia had just a handful of seconds to defend her pink jersey.  As the race progressed Kim was gaining time back, finishing in sprint for 3^rd place and 1min 10 seconds up on the Pink jersey plus a 5 second time bonus which we believed had put her back in the Pink jersey and the race win by 1 second.  Meanwhile Olivia had built a good lead over her nearest rival to gain the stage win and retain her pink jersey. Mathew Baptista and Lewis Hartley both riding great races to maintain their positions in GC.

The U12 race saw ‘Team Eastlands’ return with the peloton including all four Eastlands riders, keeping control of the race and neutralising any attacks which might have threatened their race positions. So it cam e down to the sprint with Matthew Walls just finishing in front of Leighton and Adam  to retain his yellow jersey, with Leighton second in GC and Adam fourth with a team victory for Eastlands.

In the U14 race everything stayed together, with Bryn and Christian active at the front of the race and making a few tentative attempts to get away.  The equally matched ability of the riders and the road and weather conditions meant it was going to be very difficult for anyone to break the elastic.  So it came down to a sprint with Christian taking a 3^rd place.  Overall team Sportcity took the team prize with Alex Braybrooke completing the trio.

The U16 was split into two races, with the top 30 riders contesting the A race and the bottom 30 in GC the B race.  The A race again stayed together with the yellow jersey making sure no one was going to get away, and defending  his slim lead.  In the sprint Chris Latham took the win, retaining his yellow jersey with Jake taking 3^rd in the race and 3^rd in GC. Overall Chris Latham, Jake and Chris Lawless took the team prize finishing off an outstanding 3 days of racing for all involved

Big thanks to the race organisers, parents and helpers for making the youth tour another success and we are looking forward to 2011

Postscript

The Junior tour took place at the same time with Jack Penrice and Martin Woffindin representing Sportcity  and many well known names  including Adam and Simon Yates, Rob Crampton , Sam Boast, Luke Boulton, Jack Bowyer, Mathew Holmes and Chris Sherriiffs  featuring  in the placings.