Rowe & King Summer Series Round 1 13/04/2016

[Paul Nicholas]

Congratulations to Neil for coming third in tonight's race. It was all a bit of a blur as it was well passed my bedtime (21:30 race start) and I was under the influence of sweets and Caffeine for the event, being my first crit I made sure to make as many mistakes as I could to get them out of the system. Turn up on battered commuter steed (although I had just put a new chain on it)... check. Go off the front on the first lap then hang on in the wind on the outside for the second... check. Go one lap too early on the intermediate sprint... check. Go half lap too late for the sprint finish... check. Needless to say the commuter is now retiring on a high as a Strava glitch recorded a max speed of 40.7mph on the final straight (I'm taking that one!).

It was great fun nevertheless and I would recommend it to anyone in the club who fancies a bash at racing but maybe apprehensive about entering a road race. Especially those in team Etape! I'm not entering next weeks race as it's on my birthday and I'm treating myself to a track session instead, but will more than likely enter the one after.

I'll leave it to Neil to fill in the rest of the details, judging by how well he rode it he will have a better view of the race than me.

Big thanks to Richard for coming along and supporting us, really appreciate the effort.

Ta
P

[Steven]

Great result! We have some photos on Club 59!

[Rob Jones]

Do you want a photo of podium

[Rob Jones]

Sorry missed Stevens post

[Rob Jones]

[NeilRhys]

Hi Guys,

Thanks Paul for the write up and thanks to Richard for the support, was a good team effort :-)

Ironically, Paul going a lap early for the prime got the group nicely stretched out and I got in about 5th wheel and with 200 meters to go I attacked and manage to take it.

The rest of the race was more about staying out of trouble, coming to the end I went with a break of 4 that only ever had about 20-30 meters and was pretty much neutralised with 300m to go, the guy in front of me pulled off and I had no choice but to take a long one as I knew I had no gas left to slow down and go again...so I just went for it...if the line was 10 meters earlier I would have made it...but I just had nothing left and was tying up big time!! Felt like I was cycling on wet concrete for the last 50 meters!!

Really chuffed with 3rd though and I'll be moved up to 3rd cat now...will be a bit different in the 2/3/4 race next week!

See you soon,

N