Special

FAQ

Tales Trails

Good Friday Track Meeting 2001

The 98th edition of this famous event was held under clear skies at the Herne Hill stadium in London. The event run by the Southern Counties Cycling Union attracted a good few thousand spectators. The racing was fast and furious with one of the first events being an exhilarating noisy motorpaced event behind the dernies. Local boy Russell Williams attacked from the start and it took some great chasing from the others to reel him back in. The riders were going in excess of 50mph for the last few laps and it was thrilling to be at the trackside watching close up the pain on their faces.

This photo took pride of place in the Guardian's Saturday Sports Review. (C)Guardian Photographer

It was a chance for British riders to take on some of the best racers in the world with the locals putting in a good show in the 2 lap sprint competition which was won by the Italian Roberto Chiappa who showed some astounding class to beat the New Zealand number one Anthony Peden in the finals after taking on the Dutch national champion and assorted top class Americans who flew in especially for the event. All this talent just 5 miles from Addiscombe HQ!

A 10 minute pursuit match pitted Tour legend Sean Yates against Michael Hutchinson, Bradley Wiggins, Tom Buckle and other world class riders with Olympic medallist Wiggins just winning it from time trial champion Hutchinson making a rare appearance on the track.

There were lots of other races on the programme and with the large purses on offer the action was fast from the beginning with many local riders attacking and staying away from the first lap to the sprint for the line where more often than not they were caught at the gallop. The final event was a 40 lap scratch race with £100 primes every 5 laps and a winners prize of £1000. Just about every rider present entered this one hoping to go home a lot richer. A Dutch rider was out picking up the primes allegedly putting some funds together for a forthcoming wedding but with a huge bunch sprint it was British rider Tony Gibb just getting to the line first collecting the thousand pounds and his third win of the day. Finally we were treated to a tandem 200 metre record attempt by a pair who missed out by only half a second when the results were announced but it was amazing to see how fast they came off the bend and onto the home straight. With John Watts currently the SCCU president and Stan Brown the event's treasurer Addiscombe came up to support the event in force. Monty led a ride up there with Phil Nash, Steve Dennis, Linda Goode and Robert R.E. with Marco and Eileen turning up on a rickety old tandem! Chris Colford and Jean came up from a road race held earlier in the morning with Richard and Jenny Munday, Huw, Dave Palmer, Grant Walker and Mike Rivett also there. Chris Watts and Joan Brown were assisting with Eddie Munday in track centre with Addiscombe stars of the fifties Eric Hall, Bill Boynton and Betty Flanagan watching from the grandstands! We thought it was just us the 23 of us (!) until we saw Addiscombe photographer Phil O'Connor working away taking pictures for Cycling Weekly making it 24 of us present which was almost as many as we had out for the club run the previous weekend. It was a great day out, an opportunity to catch up with friends from other clubs who were all there and a chance to watch world class athletes right on our doorstep. If you haven't been before then make sure you get along next year because you really won't regret it.