Victor Berlemont Road Race 2015 Report

by Simon Whiten · September 7, 2015

Here Patten attacked again, gained a lead of two hundred yards which Stedman, weakening at last, could not get back, eventually finishing in third place a few seconds down on Thompson. Mitchell Webber (Pedal Heaven) came in fourth at 1.28 and Wouter Sybrandy was fifth a further 14 seconds in arrears. Wouter commented “I did this the hard way” meaning he had done a lot of chasing.

Two rides a little further down the list which are worthy of note were John Mulvey (Cambridge University CC), ninth, who took the prize for the highest placed third category rider, and David Hewett (Adalta CC) tenth, who came to the event alone, suffered dehydration and only survived because the Sigma Sport support team generously gave him drinks.

John Mulvey, Cambridge University CC. First 3rd cat.

There was probably not much to choose between Dan Patten and Mike Thompson – victory was likely to go to the one whose attack disposed of the last of the opposition and, as Thompson said afterwards, “This is a team sport and our objective was to get a team win.”

The winner, Dan Patten, describes himself as a late starter in cycling, beginning at nineteen when an injury ended his running career. Having missed out on youth training programmes here he followed the classic path to cycling success by going to Belgium and spending three seasons riding for Belgian teams.