THE LINCOLN GRAND PRIX CYCLE RACE (1956 -2007)
A Race History by Mike Griffin
In 1955 four young cyclists in
The first race was held in the summer of 1956 and
had attracted a strong entry. After 90 miles
of racing Bob Eastwood from Huddersfield RC narrowly outsprinted former Tour of
Britain winner Tony Hewson and local star Nev Crane.
The following year produced an even better Field,
when Wilson Cycles Independent Ron Coe starting his 3 year domination of the
event, beat super sprinter Dave Bedwell at the line. The same two riders where first and second
the next year and Coe completed his hat-trick by beating Bill Bradley and Harry
Reynolds in 1959. This race was marred
by tragedy when local rider Roy Hart who had been in the leading group all day,
came off the back, and hit a van when starting the last lap. A great future was predicted for Roy who had
been racing for the RAF in
Falcon Cycles John Perks won the next two Grand
Prix’s followed by Jim Grieves in 1962.
Then along came Albert Hitchin who was winning nearly everything during
that period. Albert scored a lone win in
1963 leading a Viking Cycles 1 2 3 beating team mates Bernard Burns and Stan
Brittain. Hitchin retained the trophy
the following year with
The 1966 race was a classic. Southern roadman sprinter John Clarey drove a
60 mile, 6 man break just holding off a chasing group inspired by Hugh Porter
and Les West. Clarey won by 3 lengths
from Brian Rourke and
Des Thompson from
With the amalgamation of Lincoln’s cycling clubs,
into the name of Velo Club Lincoln it was decided to change the name of the
1968 event to the Lincoln Grand Prix.
At the finish Doug Dailey won, catching Les West on the run in to the finish, with another
Liverpool rider Graham Owen, who had worked like a Trojan to catch West in 3rd
place.
The Lincoln GP had now gained Star Trophy status
and the next three years’ winners were all well known all rounders. Clifton CC’s Pete Smith won in 1969, and
surprisingly Ticker Mullins won the next year in one of the few big bunch finishes
we have ever had, in both these races Beeston RC strongman Ian Hallam was 3rd.
Then in 1971 pursuiter Dave Allen of Birkenhead was the winner.
The 1972
event was a straight fight between Britain’s two leading road men, after Phil
Bayton,s big attack with two miles to go was successfully countered by Phil
Edwards there was only going to be one winner.
Edwards beating Bayton by 3 lengths at the line .Later that year these
two riders finished 4th and 5th in the Olympic RR in Munich.
A change of circuit and organiser happened the next
year. Ted English being in charge and the new circuit included the Yarborough
hill climb and the Burton village descent still used on the latest editions of
the race. On a rainy day Dave Vose from Kirby CC beat team mate John Clewarth
and Peter Watson of Clifton CC. Another
innovation was the running of the Peter Buckley Series event, the West Common
RR on the same circuit at the same time. Steve Heffernan of the Archer RC won
the Grand Prix in 1974 with Ian Hallam 3rd again. The 20th GP produced another bunch sprint
Tony Gornall from Clayton Velo leading home a group of 17 riders.
1976 was another tremendous race. Two great riders
sprinting it out after a super fast event averaging over 26 mph, later to fill
the same two places in the Milk Race.
Bill Nixon beating Joe Waugh, over 2 ˝
minutes up on Steve Lawrence and Paul Sherwin. By now I had taken over
the organiser’s role, and if this was a good race the 1977 edition even
surpassed it, an early breakaway group formed containing all the race
favourites, and looking like the “who’s who” of British road racing at the
time, including Bob Downs , along with
Ian Hallam Paul Sherwin, Phil Griffiths, Steve Lawrence, and outsider Dave Cuming
of the Kirkby CC. The West Common Junior
race, being held at the same time had just received the last lap bell, when 30
seconds later Sherwin going like a train came through the finish area with the
remains of the break hanging on for grim death. A rapid re think was needed to
give the juniors some space so a 1mile extension was quickly enforced for the
seniors and in the confusion Cumming who had just lost contact, re-joined the
break and at the finish had enough strength left to beat Lawrence and Hallam,
3rd yet again.
Steve Lawrence riding for VC Olympia Sport and
living in Essex has always been a local lad to us, learning his racing with the
Lindsey RCC in Grimsby. Steve had
finished 3rd and 2nd, so in 1978 it was justice that he should win, but he had
to work hard because at the bell, riding for Scotland a certain Robert Miller
was 30 seconds clear. Miller faded to
5th at the line after being caught by Lawrence, another Scot Robert Melrose,
Bob Downs and Phil Griffiths.
While Geoff Taylor was beating Liverpool Century
team mate Dave Grindley and Steve Joughin in1979 in pouring rain, 90 minutes
earlier the junior race had been won by Malcolm Elliot of Rutland CC. Taylor started a Merseyside domination of the
Grand Prix being followed by victories by Steve Joughin, Phil Thomas, and Mark
Bell. The man to break the monopoly
being the junior race winner of 1979 Malcolm Elliot now riding for Manchester
Wheelers, sprinting clear of Mike Davies and the great Dave Lloyd.
I had now passed the organisation back to Ian
Emmerson and Ian used his influence in Lincoln to alter the course using the
new pedestrianised area of Lincoln’s High Street and the cobbled climb of
Michaelgate up to the cathedral. Neil
Martin was the first to win on the new course beating Chris Whorton and Pete
Sanders from an 8 man break.
1985 produced a very popular winner with the
Lincoln public, the controversial and highly talented Darryl Webster. Darryl, riding for the all conquering
Manchester Wheelers team was in dispute with the GB team selectors over an
incident during the recent Sealink International Race, but he put all his
troubles behind him as he led team mates Pete Sanders, Pete Longbottom and Jeff
Williams for a Manchester Wheelers clean sweep of the first 4 places.
Webster would have loved to have retained his title
the next year, in fact he looked more than capable as the race progressed, but
one rider he couldn’t shake off was Paul Curran who had shown great early
season form that year, peaking a few days before the Grand Prix when winning
the Circuit des Mines in France. Curran broke away with 2 laps to go to
comfortably win his first “Lincoln”, whilst Webster was beaten into second
place by 19 year old Welsh lad Stuart Coles.
Surprisingly the same three riders gained podium places in 1987, with
Curran continuing his dominating form winning by similar tactics to the
previous year, this time though, Webster got the better of Coles for second
position. Paul Curran became the first
rider to score a hat-trick of Grand Prix wins since Ron Coe in the late 50’s,
when he achieved another lone victory the following year ahead of Mark Gornall
and Ben Luckwell. This was the first race to finish in Castle Square after
pressure of shopping etc forced the race away from the High Street area. This
proved to be a blessing in disguise as the uphill finish became more popular
right up to the present day. Making his
Grand Prix debut in 1988 was a young Yorkshire rider later to make a huge
impact on the race John Tanner. John finished a creditable 19th in this
event. With Curran absent from the 1989
race Mark Gornall and Luckwell stepped up a notch filling the first two places
from a breakaway group which went away after only 15 miles never to be seen
again.
Into the 90’s and it was Scotsman Brian Smith who finally
broke Manchester Wheelers 5 year domination of the race. Smith beat Pete Longbottom by just 4 seconds
at the line, and was just too strong to give Longbottom the ideal 31st birthday
present. Pete was a great supporter of
the Lincoln Grand Prix and before his untimely accidental death he had
completed 14 editions of the event with no less than 10 Top 10 finishes.
Since his last win in 1988, Paul Curran had tried
to establish himself riding as a professional, but things didn’t work out right
for Paul, so in 1991 he decided to re-instate as an amateur. He had a steady start to the season finishing
5th and 3rd in Star Trophy races before returning to Lincoln. On this day
though, Paul hit top form to gain a record 4th win in front of Dave Spencer and
‘89 winner Mark Gornall. Race organiser
Ian Emmerson and his wife Sheila were combining their organising duties with
VIP duties, as they were Lincoln City Sheriff and Lady that year to the Mayor,
Councillor David Jackson who has been a staunch supporter of cycling in the
City and has been, and still is, instrumental in the work of gaining Lincoln
City Council’s support for the running of the Grand Prix.
1992, and John Tanner had emerged as a real
contender for the race, but on the day he couldn’t quite cope with John
Charlesworth who was in tremendous form,
Charlesworth winning by 30 seconds from Tanner, Mark McKay and a young
Mark Lovatt, 4th. The race went “open”
the following year when Keith Reynolds riding for the strong Banana team beat
Tim Hall and Banana team mate Shane Sutton. Keith had improved on his father
Harry’s third place behind Ron Coe 32 years earlier.
Chris Walker had won the West Common junior race in
1982 and was now one of the country’s leading professionals. He dominated the Grand Prix in1994 leading
the race over the climb on nearly every lap before leaving John Tanner on the
last lap to win by 13 seconds, with a 20 year old Roger Hammond in 3rd place.
The 40th edition of the event was won by another in form Sheffield rider Mark Walsham
winning from two up and coming youngsters Chris Newton and Roger Hammond again.
Paul Curran was back in 1996, whilst not as
dominant as he used to be, he was still an obvious contender especially in the
Lincoln Grand Prix. Paul was riding for
Optimum Performance that year with a very strong team of Mark Lovatt, Drew
Wilson and leading Time Trialist Kevin Dawson.
At the bell most of the crowd where tipping Curran, but Dawson stormed
away to win from Curran and Joe Bayfield with previous winner Brian Smith, who had just returned from a spell with the
Motorola Pro team, in 4th place. John Tanner finally gained his just reward in
1997 scoring a great win over fellow Yorkshiremen Chris Walker and Simeon Hempsall. That same morning the National 10 mile Time
Trial Championship had been held in Lincolnshire and Johnny Clay had ridden and
left early to start the GP. Being well warmed up, John was in the break all day
and with 4 laps remaining received the news that he had won the 10
championship. That message took away
Clay’s momentum, but he still finished the race in 4th position, an incredible
day’s racing. Sadly 1997 was the final
time the long established West Common Road Race was to be run in conjunction
with the GP. Tighter Police traffic control had forced us to abandon this
successful formula.
The very strong Team Brite had controlled and
dominated all the early Premier Calendar events in 1998 standing at eight
consecutive wins before the “Lincoln”, the bad weather and the greasy cobbles
of Michaelgate Hill was to mark the end of that victory run. Harrod’s Joe
Bayfield had looked the strongest, winning 12 of the 13 Castle Square Primes
before team mate Chris Lillywhite and Team Brite’s Chris Newton took over,
these two having broken away on the last lap.
Newton looked a winner when he attacked with under a kilometre to go,
only to slip and fall on the Michaelgate cobbles, Lillywhite took his chance
and went past to win by 7 seconds with Welshman Matt Beckett, Bayfield and
Julian Winn filling the next three places. Previous winners Brian Smith and
John Tanner completed the break, and pursuit star Brian Steel leading in the
rest of the finishers.
The 44th Lincoln Grand Prix graduated to
International status in 1999, foreign teams included Sport-groep Koksijde squad
from Belgium, Oktos-MBK from France as well as strong Scotland and Ireland
national teams. Unusually, a group of 12
riders were still in contention at the foot of the final climb of Michaelgate
with Banesto’s Jeremy Hunt and National
Champion Matt Stephens looking good, Gethin Butler was there, as was Chris
Newton and John Tanner. In a hectic last
lap massed start hill climb, Hunt had to replace a derailed chain, the
Lithuanian rider Saulius Ruskis proved to be the strongest , finishing just 3
seconds in front of Tanner and Irishman Ciaran Power.
Chris Newton became the first GP winner of the new
millennium in spite of an increased overseas contingent. Chris riding for Middridge CRT beat John
Tanner in the only sprint finish we have seen in Castle Square These two had left breakaway companion Paul
Manning on the last lap, with a star studded group of Mark Lovatt, Julian Winn,
Dave Rand and leading continental New Zealander Scott Guiton riding for the
Flanders-Prefatex Team, over 3 minutes behind.
Since riding his first “Lincoln” in 1988, John
Tanner, apart from his win in 1997, had finished 2nd on no fewer than 4
occasions. In the 2001 edition of the
race John proved he had lost none of his enthusiasm for the event in spite of the
disappointment at the collapse of the Linda McCartney Pro team which Tanner and
Matthew Stephens had signed for. The
race was decided from a 17 man break which went away after 30 miles, most of
the favourites were there, including Tanner, Julian Winn, Stephens, Kevin
Dawson, Hugh Pritchard from Wales and Ireland’s Morgan Fox, as well as the
complete British pursuit squad, who later the same year were to finish a close
2nd in the World Championship, of Chris Newton, Bradley Wiggins, Paul Manning,
Brian Steel and Steve Cummings. The
breakaway group broke up eventually due to the strength of Tanner and Winn, who went on to finish in
that order, just ahead of Matt Stephens who had made a great last lap effort to
catch the two leaders.
With Manchester hosting the Commonwealth Games in
2002 we had riders from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Isle of Man, Canada and
Australia competing against the pick of the English road men hoping to catch
their respective selectors’ eye with a good performance in the Grand Prix.
John Tanner was the leader of a very strong Compensation Group Racing Team with
past winner Kevin Dawson and prolific winner Mark Lovatt. In form
Welshman Hugh Pritchard was in all of the early moves along with members of the
Team Down Under from Australia, but no definite breakaway was established until
two laps to go when Pritchard forged ahead with new La Francaise des Jeux
professional Bradley Wiggins. At the bell they where 15 seconds up on a
small group of three Team Down Under riders and Dawson and Lovatt from the
Compensation Group RT. Whilst most people tipped Wiggins for the win Hugh
Pritchard stormed up Michaelgate the last time to win the race by 7 seconds
from Wiggins with a fast finishing Paul Redanbach from Australia claiming 3rd place
in front of Dawson and Lovatt, followed by Aussies Brookes and Roland with
Andrew Roche from the Isle of Man completing the leading group. John
Tanner led in the bunch for 11th place.
Major interest in the 2003 Lincoln Grand Prix was the return to top
class competition of 1983 winner Malcolm Elliott, but with 8 National and
International teams entered as well as the pick of the UK’s leading teams it
seemed like a tall order for Elliott now in his 40’s. Even so he made it into
the winning breakaway which formed after 80 miles of racing together with other
former winners Tanner, and Newton. Also there were New Zealand professional
rider Gordon McCauley and John Tanner’s team mate Mark Lovatt. At the finish it
was Lovatt who finally gained his first victory in Lincoln beating McCauley by
7 seconds with Elliott clinching a superb 3rd place in front of
Tanner and Chris Newton. Best of the continental riders was Tino Haakman from
Holland in 6th position.
Irish Road Race Champion David O’Loughlin was looking for Olympic
selection for the Athens Games as were Canadians Lange and Perras in this 2004
49th edition of the race. The pace as usual was fast and furious but
a breakaway group never really got established although O’Loughlin was in all
the right moves. A surprise winner looked likely when American rider Eddy
Hilger had a lone lead with just two laps to go, however he was caught by
O’Loughlin and English rider Robin Sharman of the Recycling team. Sharman had
just returned from a successful racing trip to Greece and was looking very
strong, but O’Loughlin powered up Michaelgate Hill on the last lap to score
Ireland’s first GP win. Sharman held on for 2nd just 5 seconds clear
of another storming finish by Malcolm Elliott in 3rd place yet
again. Canadian Cory Lange was 4th while Hilger of the USA slipped
back to 10th place of the 60 finishers.
A late entry for the celebratory 50th Lincoln
Grand Prix came from Discovery Channel Pro rider Roger Hammond. Roger had
finished 3rd on two previous occasions but this time he was recovering from a
serious crash sustained in the continental spring classics.
The race winning break went on the first lap
instigated by Andy Collis and Duncan Urquart, and they were joined by another
13 riders. With 4 laps to go Dean and Russell Downing of the Re Cycling
team forged ahead with Welsh rider Yanto Barker, they stayed together until the
bell lap when the Downing brothers dropped Barker, who eventually finished 8th.
Russ Downing was the strongest at the finish
beating Dean by 6 seconds, while Malcolm Elliott left the remains of the
original breakaway group at the foot of Michaelgate hill to finish 3rd ahead of
Robin Sharman. Top foreign rider was Canadian Andrew Randell in 17th
position while Roger Hammond rode a steady recovery race to finish 32nd in the
main bunch.
In contrast to the previous year the 2006 race was
in doubt until the final 2 miles.
On one of the wettest Lincoln Grand Prixs, breaks
were made and brought back and one of the biggest bunches stayed intact probably
due to the weather or the police request to reduce the race distance to 86
miles. The race burst into life with 2 laps to go when 2000 race winner
Chris Newton produced a powerful attack taking 5 riders clear of the
bunch. On the penultimate lap Newton again attacked and at the bell
looked a likely winner as he came over the hill in a lone lead. Rob
Hayles, however, was towing a chasing group of 11 riders who caught Newton on
the outskirts of the city, immediately Ireland’s Paul Healion and former New
Zealand rider Matt Talbot escaped taking Chris Newton's Re-Cycling team mate
Kristian House with them. House who was beginning to dominate the Premier
Calender was the strongest on the final climb to win by 7 seconds from Healion
and Talbot, all three riding in Lincoln for the first time.
First overseas rider was Peter McDonald from
Australia in 4th place just in front of a courageous Chris Newton and Rob
Hayles. 50 riders finished within 2 minutes of Kristian House which is
unusual for the Lincoln GP. The race was televised by Cycling.tv for British
Eurosport for the second year.
On to 2007 and the weather forecast for May 13th
was spot on - Rain starting late morning and getting progressively worse.
The huge field of 150 starters faced a wet 86 miles and after 3 laps the race
was split into two big groups and two laps later a further split when 17 riders
went clear, notable riders to miss this move included Elliott, Tanner Lovett
and Dawson. After a series of attacks mainly by Chris Newton and Wayne
Randle, who was to win the combativity prize, seven riders formed the leading
group with three laps to go. 2005 winner Russell Downing and continental
based professional Jonathan Dayus moved away from this group and looked to
be a race winning move, however as soon as the duo where caught,
Russell's brother Dean counter attacked with New Zealander Gordon McCauley. At
the bell they had 30 seconds advantage and as both had previously finished
second in the race McCauley in 2003 and Downing in 2005, the incentive was
there. The race came down to a sprint finish with Downing winning by just
over a length. Russell Downing finished strongly for 3rd place in front
of
This
year’s race will be the 53rd in Lincoln and the first organiser Mike
Jones has officiated in one capacity or another in every single one. Present
Chief Judge Pete Griffin has also either rode or officiated every event, while
Ian Emmerson and myself have only missed two or three races. By recruiting
National officials the Lincoln Grand Prix continues to maintain very high
standards of organisation and we will press on towards our goal of the 53rd
race on
