Viking StreetVelodrome: Round 4 Newmarket

The 4th event of the Viking StreetVelodrome Series took place last week in Newmarket, Suffolk.

This exciting event, where the riders participate using our Viking and De Novo bikes, saw the best weather we’ve had of the series so far. Not only has the weather been heating up but the competition between the pro riders has been fierce particularly with the SuperFinals looming.

The Qualifiers

The headline for the Newmarket event was the return of 2015 & 2016 Pro champion Jess Stone. Her first taste of Pro Qualification turned out to be more of a challenge than she expected with the last minute withdrawal of her male pro team mate Csaba Csenge. This meant that regardless of her time Jess would be seeded last unless one of the other pro team times had a time disallowed.

Sadly, for Jess she ended up last. However the result didn’t diminish her hopes of winning gold on her return, but it did dent any chances of scoring much needed catch trophy points for her adopted team.

Fifth in qualifying was the debut duo of popular vlogger and mountain biker Ricky Crompton and Crit racer Christine Robson both riding for Team London. Both knew the pressure in qualifying was to set the best combined time possible in order to avoid being seeded against the faster riders.

In fourth was Team Wigan headed up by leading pro male Patrick Robinson, fresh from his gold medal in Worthing. His teammate Jess Greaves returned to the series.

In third was Suffolk Saints, the home team here in Newmarket. John and Kara both knew the importance of placing a good performance on the day. Both managed to set their fastest times of the season giving them a well-deserved best qualification result so far in 2017.

Second place was Team Cornwall with double gold medallist Jessica Watts, joined by 2016 amateur finalist from Cornwall Andy Bray putting in an excellent performance to warrant his step up to the pro ranks.

Topping the table were the on form SouthCoast Rollers Craig Maclean and Rowena Price. Craig’s qualification time was just the fastest overall time on the day helping the team secure top spot.

And so with the grid set it was race time.

Women’s Head to Head

Finishing off the pro female eliminators Kara for the Suffolk Saints lined up against the third Jess of the day, Jess Greaves for Team Wigan. Her home team advantage paid off as Kara delivered her first win of the Series and secured herself a place in the semi-finals. Jess Greaves losing time wasn’t quite enough to go through which meant Rowena would live to fight another day.

Men’s Head to Head

In the men’s eliminators debut rider Ricky Crompton beat Team Cornwall’s Andy Bray and Patrick of Team Wigan beat John Stockwell. John however managed to set the quickest loser time so just scraped through to the semi-finals.

The Finals

The semi-finals resulted in John having to battle against Ricky for bronze. With the support of the local crowd and an attacking ride like never seen from John before he managed to claim his second and the Team’s third bronze medal this season.

In the gold / silver medal race it was a repeat of last weekend’s Patrick v Craig battle. These two very different riders have such contrasting riding styles, physics and cycling backgrounds it’s hard to believe than when they race the gap between them is measured in hundredths of seconds. And so it was in Newmarket, but this time Craig came out on top winning the SouthCoast Rollers first ever gold medal, putting them straight back into contention ahead of the SuperFinals.

In the female medal races Kara’s new found form just wasn’t enough against the power of Rowena who managed to join her SouthCoast Rollers team mate’s medal celebrations with a bronze of her own.

The final race of the day, Jessica versus Jess. Jessica has achieved two gold medals this season and scored catch trophy points at every round. Riding for Jess Stone’s old team, Team Cornwall, Jessica gave everyone the impression she was the ‘new Jess’. Here she came up against the original, the most successful pro rider in StreetVelodrome history, the leading name in the Hall of Fame, the current double champion, the quickest individual female rider in qualifying, Jess Stone.

Jess Stone, with that seemingly effortless style pushed the young Jessica Watts all the way and to win her first gold of the season on her return.

The Results

Pro Male

Gold – Craig Maclean Mbe – Southcoast Rollers

Silver – Patrick Robinson – Team Wigan

Bronze – John Stockwell – Suffolk Saints

Pro Female

Gold – Jess Stone – Team Dublin

Silver – Jessica Watts – Team Cornwall

Bronze – Rowena Price – Southcoast Rollers

Series Medal Table

1st Team Wigan 3 Golds / 2 Silvers / 0 Bronze

2nd Team Cornwall 2 Golds / 1 Silver / 1 Bronze

3rd Southcoast Rollers 1 Gold / 3 Silver / 2 Bronze

4th Team London 1 Gold / 2 Silver / 1 Bronze

5th Team Dublin 1 Gold / 0 Silver / 1 Bronze

6th Suffolk Saints 0 Gold / 0 Silver / 3 Bronze

Catch Trophy

1st Southcoast Rollers 4 Catches

2nd Team Cornwall 3 Catches

3rd Team London 1 Catch

3rd Suffolk Saints 1 Catch

Most Wins Trophy

1st Team Wigan 14 Wins

2nd Southcoast Rollers 12 Wins

3rd Team London 10 Wins

4th Team Cornwall 9 Wins

5th Suffolk Saints 6 Wins

6th Team Dublin 5 Wins

NEXT ROUND – THE SUPERFINALS 2017 CANARY WHARF 10TH AUGUST

Back to News