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Only four laps tonight, because of the gloom – even at 6 p.m. cars had their lights on.  I for one was pleased about this decision!  Anyway the rain held off, the roads were reasonably dry, temperatures remained marginally above freezing, and all the races went off without incident.  Only a few WVCC riders out today: Julian, Kris and Tim contested the young uns’ race and I gather all three finished safely in the bunch; Kev and Nick rode in the 45 to 55 age group and Kev unwisely got into a break with Keith Jones – unfortunately Keith was too strong for him so Kev ended up back in the bunch (and nearly got spat out the back apparently); and Alan and I rode in the over 55s.  Alan finished first man (difficult because there were a lot of other men) and I was first woman (easy as I was the only one woman riding – Carol was marshalling this week).  Our race started off at a gentle pace for about 3 miles until Alan decided to start mixing it, with his normal “attack attack attack” approach which soon wore the bunch down.  Last week this took three laps, this week the bunch didn’t have the stomach to chase him and he got away in the second lap (with 4 others).  At this point the bunch breathed a sigh of relief and settled down to “marginally more than club run pace”, putting in a bit more effort at the corners to persuade the marshals and spectators that we were actually trying.  Alan won the bunch sprint.  He really is a class act!!  And then the best bit of the evening, tea in nice china cups and very nice cakes courtesy of the church ladies, and apparently whilst we were upstairs clapping the winners, someone downstairs was nicking all the race numbers…