20th May

One of the benefits of being a member of a team is basking in reflected glory. It’s fair to say that performances of a team like ours don’t get much bigger than Roger’s ride yesterday in the Regional Championships, where he claimed 2nd place. BC has a full report, so let’s leave it to Roger to give us his view of the race.

Roger’s Race Report 

Wayne and I agreed that I would go with or launch an early move and he would keep his powder dry. I’m not a punchy rider so it benefits me to get up the road and wait, plus the Div’s seem to reward aggressive riding. As the bunch idled up the finish hill for the first time Wayne totally ignored the plan, pushed on and opened a gap getting away with a small group. The bunch sped up eventually and I sensed Wayne was going to get pulled back so I attacked and I think it was Jamie Caldwell who bridged to me and we caught Wayne. Rhys from Orbea was also in the mix. This made 6 (me, Wayne, Jamie Caldwell, Rhys Howell, Vince Divine and a Cambridge rider). Vince crashed and the Cambridge rider got dropped, not sure if the two were connected. The remaining 4 of us worked well for the next 3 laps until with the lap board showing 3 to go we were caught by a larger group. We were then too large to work effectively and the whole thing started to fall apart. Riders were either sitting on or attacking each other. Eventually a small but strong group of 6 got clear but this seemed to galvanize those who were left into action and we started riding and quickly pulled them back. With about 2 to go there were lots of attacks going off but nothing stuck until a Metaltek rider attacked and I went with him and we got a couple of hundred metres or so before Andy Hastings and Jamie Caldwell bridged. Andy was riding very strongly and it resulted in the Metaltek rider getting dropped. Us three pushed on very hard to establish a gap and rode together until Andy attacked along the main road around the back of the circuit which is a heavy drag. He got a gap and powered away. Myself and Jamie rode together to within 150 metres of the finish line where I jumped coming into the final rise and could tell immediately that his legs had gone. Happy days.

Hat off to Wayne who rode well for the majority of the race. It was good to have friendly company especially when it starts to hurt. To have 2 ELV’s at the front of a Divs for the whole race is great.

Thanks to Anna and Dave for hanging around for the presentation. The wait was painful. Beyond the call of duty but much appreciated.