East London Velo Thursday Evening 5 LVRC 11th June 2009

The ever-popular evening series continued with a clockwise race using the full circuit at Hog Hill. A strong wind along the exposed lower reaches of the course, combined with a reverse ascent of the Hoggenberg, ensured a testing night's work for the North Road outfit.

Del Evans made a suprise appearance for his first outing in the series although a lack of race fitness cost him dearly early on, as the first few laps into the stiff breeze proved particularly testing.  The crucial break occured relatively early in the race, with the strong headwind proving decisive, as the bunch split into two with a distinct gap.  Richard Somerset using his highly tuned racecraft, was in the top half of the field, while Dave Kiely and John McDowall were caught rather naively in the second group.

John tried on his own for two laps to bridge the gap, but was unable to make much impression on what clearly would be the decisive break, and so sat up to join what remained of the bunch.  Richard's group caught the C/D group on the line, riding strongly to finish seventh in the sprint and third A cat.  John and David finished in what remained of the bunch.

From left to right: Derek Evans, Dave Kiely, Richard Somerset and john McDowall