In the over 50s and over 60s race, Alan Kemp led a great breakaway of three off the front: they built an impressive lead of about a minute, but somehow the pack managed to whittle this down and eventually Alan and pals were swallowed up by the bunch…however despite all his hard work earlier on Alan still managed to win the sprint finish, to win the overall race and his age group. Kev was delighted to come fourth overall and second in his age group, and Graham and Dave Astles both did well too.
In the middle age group Nick also got involved in a breakaway, again of 3 riders, and they got a lead of about 30 seconds but Nick (paying the price for trying to keep up with Ross on the night-time mountain-bike ride at the weekend!) got dropped by the other two, and he ended up joining Chas in the bunch at the finish. As for the youngsters – from where I was standing it looked like a very well contested race and the pack split up with several riders off the front in ones and twos – Dave held on really well at what looked like a brisk pace, to finish in the bunch.
The rain held off, but it was quite breezy. Craig and I marshalled and I got cold despite wearing two coats and a pair of gloves! Eleanor.
Thanks for the report Eleanor. It was a hard windy evening, but I should have stuck with that breakaway as they stayed clear to the finish. But that’s easy to say now when my lungs aren’t bursting and my legs aren’t burning.