teamwallis-CHH Cycling Team

Photo: Emma Selling

Congratulations to Jacob Tipper, who on Sunday won the 3rd round of the SERRL Winter Circuit Series, gaining 10 points and hence his Elite licence in the process.

Here's Jacob's race report:

"It was round 3 of the SERRL Winter Series in Kent (and the last chance to collect points for the 2011 season before the November 31st cut off).

A half decent field of 30ish winter racers lined up for the start for the 1 hour 30 race round the newly opened cyclopark.

The initial plan of riding negatively and waiting for the finish was clearly not going to work, with breaks constantly forming throughout the first 15 minutes of the race.

At the 20 minute point a move of 5 strong riders got a gap which seemed to me was going to be the winning move with other riders still in the peloton looking hesitant to work so early on. However, I still bided my time, unsure of whether my fitness levels would allow me to get across, so I waited to see if any others were willing to work across to the move. However, this was not the case so I jumped away with one other rider to attempt to bridge the gap. Unfortunately for me, the rider who came with me had a rider in the break so was refusing to work, leaving me a lap and a half of the 3k circuit on the rivet before finally making the vital junction across.

The next hour of the race was relatively uneventful other than one rider dropping off, leaving just 6 of us left with just 5 laps to go and a clear lead. From this point I was just more worried about getting a mechanical as I knew I only needed to finish with the bunch to secure what had seemed to be the ever elusive elite licence.

But come one lap to go and the bell rings and the only thought passing through my head is about winnning the race ...

The sprint opened up with just 200 meters to go with a geoffrey butlers cycles rider jumping first. However, as soon as I kicked after him I could see I had the legs on my breakaway rivals and sprinted to the line to take a win and the points needed to get my elite licence.

I would like to thank teamwallis-CHH and sponsors for their help this season and helping me develop as a rider."