Matt Clinton claims first time-trial win of 2016 - The Leamington Observer

Matt Clinton claims first time-trial win of 2016

Leamington Editorial 7th Apr, 2016 Updated: 28th Oct, 2016   0

KENILWORTH cyclist Matt Clinton was in fine form on Saturday after winning the Midlands VTTA ten-mile event near Rugby.

With the race season now in full swing, Mike Vaughan Cycles riders were in action over the weekend and featured in both time-trials and road-racing.

Clinton was the first in action on Saturday on the K11/10T course where he was the last man off to tackle the course.

Fast conditions would yield an outward five-miles at 33mph, but a nagging crosswind hampered times on the return, with many riders being a minute down on usual for this course.




Clinton, 31, dipped just under 30mph on his Trek Speed Concept to close a time of 20 minutes and one second which was enough to clinch first place and he finished 35 second ahead of second-placed Jonathan Wears.

There was no time to rest for Clinton who was in action again on Sunday at the Bill Jinks Memorial race in Corley where he was joined by 21-year-old team mate Jack O’Neill.


The 65-mile road race provided stiff competition for 2/3/4 cat riders and took participants on ten laps of a tough rolling circuit near Fillongley.

With no moves happening in the first half of the race, Clinton decided to make his move with 25 miles remaining and he launched an attack on the front where he was joined by Matthew Garthwaite.

Soon after the pair were joined by O’Neill and Warwick University’s Jude Taylor and the four riders gained some momentum before four became eight after another quartet bridged the gap over the main group to just over one minute.

Clinton pushed the pace to keep the pressure on while O’Neill sensed this was his chance to win and on the final climb Clinton was happy to sit in seventh and allow his team mate to use his kick sprint.

But over powered by Garthwaite who was probably the strongest rider in the race, O’Neill was forced to settle for the runner-up spot in a race where 30 of the 80 starters failed to finish.

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