Thwaites on collision course with rival Opie (From Ilkley Gazette)

Thwaites on collision course with rival Opie

10:33am Thursday 14th June 2012 in Sport

Scott Thwaites has painful recent memories of battling with one of his rivals in Wednesday’s race.

Thwaites was involved in a sprint in round eight of the Professional Tour Series at Torquay last week with Marcin Bialoblocki (Node4 Giodana) and Chris Opie (UK Youth) when disaster struck.

With only a very short sprint from the final corner to the finish, the first rider out of the corner was odds on to win, so Thwaites attacked early and held the perfect line.

Unfortunately, a badly positioned Opie attempted a suicidal move, under-steered and crashed into the barriers, taking a disbelieving Thwaites with him and gifting the win to a grateful Bialoblocki.

This relegated Endura from first to third as Thwaites was unable to finish with his bike written off.

Thwaites said, “Chris has been riding well and was desperate to win, but sometimes you need to take a step back and think of the big picture.

“It’s a team event so personal ambitions have to be subordinated to the needs of the team. Trying to corner on the wrong line at 40kph on a wet road was never on.

“Yes I’m disappointed I was denied another probable victory, but more importantly the team was deprived points we deserved and worked hard for.”

Two days later Thwaites passed Opie on the sprint to take seventh place at Colchester Endura secured the team win and went 14 points clear at the head of the table.

The series concludes at Stoke tonight with a team time trial and a circuit race. Endura will be looking to secure the title.