British Cycling described Giles at Otley as “Super Sprinter”, so who are we to argue 
Simon – THAT is how you celebrate!. Click, then click again for full size image.
Giles Takes Otley Town Centre Crits 2009
Fantastic result and a great write up below from the victor himself:
Everyone in Yorkshire spends all year talking about “otley”.
On the night it’s a bar room brawl of a race. There’s 110 riders on a 1.4m course. It’s full on from minute one. The bunch is a fantastically exciting maelstrom of bike riders. You have to fight for every inch of road and continually move up to maintain your position in the top 5 or 10. There is pushing, shoving, swearing and general edginess all round. Attacks are going off all the time but such is the strength of depth in the field that the momentum of the front group makes it difficult for breaks to consolidate any kind of lead.
Into the last lap and it’s actually a race to the end of the back straight. This is an undulating back road on the outskirts of the town. The surface is really bad and there’s a high curb on the left. It is chaos down there on the last lap. everyone wants to get to the corner in the first 3 or 4.
Out of that corner I was about 5th. The course then drops away down a big hill back into the town so it’s straight into the 11 and time to go for it. At the bottom is a tightesh left hander, 180 yards from the line. By this point we’re spinning out even in the eleven before going round the corner on our ears. Right where you want to put your front wheel is a drain cover so hitting it at 45 mph always makes your bike jump to the right a bit. This pushes you towards the barriers on the outside of the exit to the corner. No need to panic because grip always returns to the brave. We’re still in the eleven and as soon as you’ve got past the apex you have to nail it for the line.
I came out of this corner in 3rd. Normally the rule is that 1st out of the corner wins at otley but the crowds are so massive that you forget how much you’re in oxygen debt by this stage. A few blinks of the eye later you’re crossing the line having battered everyone in the gallop.
Behind you riders are hitting barriers and each other as they battle it out for the minor placings and a share of the multi thousand pound prize list.
I absolutely love this race…
Simon is very nochalent about his wins. He probably knows there will be loads more and so is relaxed.
Wow – impressive stuff indeed Giles, well done! Ace photo.
Very understated
Excellent result and we always knew but BC have finally caught on – “Super Sprinter Giles”
Well done mate
awesome ride mate!
well done giles great result! also saw you where very prominent in the Tom Simpson the other day! saw you come over the top of the hill in the lead group looked to be going well! I raced the junior national champs yesterday in Abergavenny. really hard race finishing in the town center with some big style climbs!, I finished 15th in the bunch sprint, after hanging in right on the limit over the last few climbs where it was really turned on, in an attempt to bring back kennaugh,atkins and perret, good day though, bit disappointed that i didn’t make top 10 but its all good and I will come back stronger than ever next year!
15th in the nationals is still impressive mate, good going.
Hi Ewen, 15th in the nationals is really good. you said you were disappointed but the fact is that you are probably in the top 2 or 3% of all the juniors racing bikes in this country. That’s not a bad place to be, especiallly if you can view your junior career as being part of the journey and not the destination. Everything you do now is just preperation for later when it really begins to count. From what I’ve seen of you race you never seem to give up and always seem keen to get stuck in. in the end that attitude will bring you a lot of victories.
I think everyone develops at different speeds. i remember as a junior being just not as good as many of the others around me but later on (when i was 18 – 20) all the guys that had been winning as juniors had either packed it in or had just stopped developing while the rest of us all caught up. i then started getting results and with results comes confidence which brings more results. in senior racing it seems to be much more of a level playing field – if you keep on doing the right things (training, racing and keeping way from nightclubs & loose women) you’ll get that call from Herety or one of the others.
good luck, keep at it.
Giles fantastic ride, was talking Sat to one of Ewen`s mates father ( Perry was in same race ) who commented on how well you did to get through the scrum and avoid the carnage to secure victory, allso sound advice you gave Ewen on his riding, not too sure about the `loose women` though !! one thing Ewen did`nt mention about his race was that out of ninety starters, FIFTY packed, such was the pace and severity of the race in extreamly hot, humid, conditions !!
Well done Ewen, stick with it and the big results will soon start to come mate.
i’m not surprised 50 packed, it just shows how well Ewen did.
Otley – very hairy indeed. you have to ride every lap like it’s the last, just to stay near the front. all worth it though when you get to the line first though!