Guildford Town Centre Races
Guildford Town Centre Races
Charlotteville Cycling Club, Churchouse Financial Planning and Cycleworks UK Ltd presents the Guildford Town Centre Races 2009 on July 8.
Its been running now for twenty five years but earlier in the year it looked as if the Guildford Town Centre Races would not take place. However, with the support of the local business community the event was secured for another year. With the help of the Town Centre Managament Group and the Guildford Summer Festival Committee and publicity from both 96.4 The Eagle and Surrey Advertiser the sponsors were found.
The event is promoted by Charlotteville Cycling Club in partnership with co-headline sponsors Churchouse Financial Planning and Cycleworks UK Ltd. Racing takes place on Wednesday 8th July on its traditional course at the centre of Guildford taking in the cobbles of the High Street, the long sweeping descent into North Street and the tight corner up into Market Street. Churchouse Financial Planning are Independent Financial Advisers and Chartered Financial Planners and are a local Guildford High Street based business. Cycleworks are one of the South’s leading cycle shops with premises in amongst other places Burpham catering for all your cycling requirements.
Entries for all events are coming in fast with some hard racing expected for what is widely regarded as one of the toughest criterium events in the south.
Amongst the top riders entered for the main event of the evening there are several names that will be familiar to regular attendees of the event will recognise. Two time winner Warrick Spence (CycleFit RT) returns to try for his third crown but there will be many other riders out to try and stop him from again winning the event which always seems to play to his racing strengths. Regular entrant Jody Crawforth (Arctic Premier RT) comes to this years event as the reigning National Cyclo-Cross Champion having taken the title back at the start of the year. Wouter Sybrandy (Sigma Sport/Specialized/Sportful) will be in good form after being outsprinted by just a matter of inches in the final Tour Series national criterium series event at Southend-on-Sea. That particular event was shown on ITV4 and was part of the same series that saw an event take place in Woking earlier in May. James Stewart (Team Kinesis UK) came third in the Abergavenny Criterium which was a support event to the National Road Race Championships held last weekend in Wales.
Finally, James Millard (Madison.co.uk) will once again return to his family home town of Guildford where ‘Milly’ will want to take the big title at the local race that he attended (and raced in) many times whilst he was growing up.
As usual there will be a full programme of support races where the leading entrants for the 3rd’s and Juniors event, which will almost certainly have a full field come race day, include the race winners from the past two years; Sam Sturgeon (Team Terminator) and Paul Hopkins (OffCamber), who return to the event for 2009. The Youths event finishes completes the list of races and will have some of most rewarding and interesting racing from under 16 riders all the way down to the under 10’s.
Charlotteville Cycling Club would like to thank all those who have helped in order to gain sponsorship for this event and subsequently ensuring its survival. Ofcourse we would particularly like to thank our headline sponsors Churchouse Financial Planning and Cycleworks UK Ltd as well as Knight Frank and Surrey Advertiser for their continued support.
After the heavy rains that caused the cancellations of the youth event last year organisers are hoping for better luck this year and have arranged for a dry evening!
Order of Events
The main event of the evening will be the Guildford Criteriums for Elite, 1st and 2nd category riders and starts at 8pm. A programme of supporting events will also be offered; the Charlotteville Criteriums featuring Juniors & 3rd category riders will start the proceedings at 7pm. Then, at 7.30pm it’s the turn of the youngsters, with the Youth Criterium for Juveniles, Under 16’s, Under 14’s and Under 12’s.
19:00 - The Charlotteville Criterium (3/Jun) 20mins plus 10 laps
19:30 - The Youth Criterium (Juv/U16/U14/U12) 15mins plus 5 laps
20:00 - The Guildford Criterium (E/1/2) 50mins plus 10 laps
