Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

Halfords Tour Series Round 9: Endura Racing take a clean sweep in Chester

Crash puts serious dent in Rapha-Condor-Sharp's hopes of series win...

Endura Racing made a clean sweep of the first three places in the penultimate round of the Halfords Tour Series in Chester last night, with New Zealander Jack Bauer, who got clear of the field with around ten minutes of the race left, followed home by team-mates Ian Wilkinson and Rob Hayles, the first time since the Tour Series began last year that a single team has managed to fill the top three positions.

The team win puts Endura Racing within two points of series leader Motorpoint-Marshalls Pasta, setting up a tantalising finale in Woking on Thursday, but there was drama unfolding behind the winner on a last lap in the streets of the city’s historic centre as a huge crash took out several members of the Rapha-Condor-Sharp team, all but ending their hopes of winning the overall title.

The evening had begun well for the London-based team, with Kristian House taking the points in the first sprint, and with Graham Briggs and House occupying the first two places it will almost certainly be a Rapha-Condor-Sharp rider who will win the inaugural Boardman Bikes Sprint Competition by the time Thursday’s race finishes.

Kuota-road.cc, the designated home team for the night, were able to take advantage of the chaos to finish the fourth-placed team on the evening, their best result of what has been a frustrating series hampered by injuries and crashes.

Last night’s action will be shown on ITV4 tonight at 7pm.

Halfords Tour Series Round Nine Results

Team

1) Endura Racing
2) Motorpoint ˆ Marshalls Pasta
3) Team Raleigh
4) Kuota ˆ road.cc
5) Rapha ˆ Condor - Sharp
6) Pendragon Le Col Colnago
7) Team Corley Cycles
8) Sigma Sport - Specialized
9) CyclePremier.com - Metaltek
10) Team Ireland

Individual

1) Jack Bauer - Endura Racing
2) Ian Wilkinson - Endura Racing
3) Rob Hayles - Endura Racing
4) Yanto Barker - Pendragon Le Col Colnago
5) Kristian House - Rapha-Condor-Sharp

The Halfords Tour Series Standings (after nine rounds)

1) Motorpoint-Marshalls Pasta 79pts
2) Endura Racing 77pts
3) Rapha-Condor-Sharp 73pts
4) Sigma Sport-Specialized 53pts
5) Pendragon Le Col Colnago 52pts
6) Team Raleigh 49pts
7) CyclePremier.com-Metaltek 43pts
8) Team Corley Cycles 33pts
9) Kuota-road.cc 25pts
10) Team Ireland 8pts

Boardman Bikes Sprints Competition Results

1) Kristian House - Rapha-Condor-Sharp 11pts
2) Rob Hayles - Endura Racing 9pts
3) Darren Lapthorne - Rapha-Condor-Sharp 6pts

Boardman Bikes Sprints Competition Standings (after nine rounds)

1) Graham Briggs Rapha-Condor-Sharp 55pts
2) Kristian House Rapha-Condor-Sharp 43pts
3) Liam Holohan Team Raleigh 41pts
 

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

Add new comment

6 comments

Avatar
Blackhound | 13 years ago
0 likes

Excellent racing again this year and was good to see the Kuota-Roadcc team get a result. I did see them at the front more which was good to see. The crash looked nasty, especially some chap (official?) who got caught up by the second wave of riders to come round the corner.

Make them suffer at Woking....

[I recall Cherie Pridham turning up at one of our club 10's a long, long time ago]

Avatar
Simon_MacMichael | 13 years ago
0 likes

Thanks for clarification JJ, always good to hear from someone who was in the middle of it and, yes, it;'s great that the team's luck is hopefully turning.

Settling down to watch the race on TV now and looking forward to seeing those attacks, nice piece about the team to introduce tonight's coverage too!

Avatar
JJ the Flying D... | 13 years ago
0 likes

To put it a bit in perspective, it wasn't just the crash that lead us to 4th place. We rode very attacking and aggressive, were in almost all breaks, including the decisive one and were well placed for the bunch sprint too. We were lucky to stay up in that crash, that's true, but we've been unlucky for many times as well. After all the bad luck we've had so far we finally have been able to show what we can do! Bring on Woking!

Avatar
Simon_MacMichael | 13 years ago
0 likes

I only made two of the rounds, but thoroughly enjoyed them, pace of the racing from the word go was incredible, that and some tough circuits makes for some very hard but exciting racing.

Have to say though, going by pic above, and with apologies to anyone in the Potteries, Chester circuit looks a lot prettier than Stoke-on-Trent  3

Having fun right now trying to think up what would be the ideal 1 kilometre circuit in Oxford... not as easy as it sounds once you start taking road furniture and through routes into account, try it with your home town.

If you know Oxford, I reckon it would pretty much have to occupy the site of St Giles Fair which seems to have worked pretty well in terms of street closures every September for the past few hundred years  3

Avatar
jova54 | 13 years ago
0 likes

Looking forward to the Woking event and the weather looks set to be a scorcher.

Avatar
simonmb | 13 years ago
0 likes

Whoever wins on Thursday it's been a brilliant season of racing. The riders have given it everything and provided great entertainment for many thousands of spectators and (aside from some organizational issues in earlier rounds) the Tour Series has been a great credit to the greatest of all sports. Brilliant!

Latest Comments