DAN Craven last week won his first race of the 2010 season, riding for his UK team Rapha/Condor/ Sharp. It was a great result after his disappointing end to the 2009 season with a broken collar bone which prevented him from defending his African championship title in November in Windhoek.
The 43rd annual Clayton Velo Spring Classic began in Clithero in northwest England, and while the hills round the town had snow on them, the weather was a lot better than had been predicted. Cold yes, but not freezing and it was dry and perfect for an early season race. The elite group certainly had some quality in it with Olympic medallist Chris Newton (Rapha Condor Sharp) a notable starter.
Matt Cronshaw (Rapha Condor Sharp) was one who went for a solo effort, something he admitted later he paid a price for. When with five of 14 laps to go Matt was reeling in, Peter Williams (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta) countered with an attack of his own and Dan Craven joined him. “I feel a little bit guilty because when I first got away with Pete, I was just feeling a bit sluggish and he was doing harder pulls than I was and he could see that I was struggling. Then with a lap and a half to go, he attacked me twice and those two efforts to bring him back, kind of kick started me and woke the legs up,” Dan commented after the race.
“Had he not attacked me, I may well have been sluggish at the end. For the last lap, I was pulling as strong as he was and coming into the final kilometre and a half, we knew we had a nice gap so I got Pete in front of me so I was on his wheel. At the start of the sprint, I jumped him and as he drew alongside, I thought he’s looking good. I shifted down a gear and kept going and he didn’t. “For me, being a well known non-sprinter, it’s really cool to win this race.
I must also say I knew I had four strong guys in the group behind, so I could have sat on Pete because I felt my riders were stronger than his. Another motivation to sprint hard was I knew if I didn’t pull it off with such strong guys at the back it would be very disappointing for them and the team if I hadn’t won. With Chris getting third, I think the team had a good showing for the first outing of the year.”
