ELV Hog Hill Summer Series Round 1 - 8th May 2014

Thu 15 May 2014

ELV Hog Hill Summer Series Round 1 - 3rd

It was somewhat wetter than you’d expect for the first round of a ‘summer series’ and the field was somewhat depleted accordingly, but fortunately the rain had stopped by the time racing got underway and there was only surface water to contend with.
The races were run with a pretty confusing handicapping system. Categories from 4 through to Elite were each set off at 30 seconds intervals, with two separate races for E/1/2 and 3/ 4. One of the 3rds from Ipswich attacked from the gun and charged straight past us and up the road a little while before we were joined by the remaining 3rds. We were then passed by the E/1/2 race and he joined up with them and stayed away. That confused me somewhat as last year you weren’t allowed to hop onto the wheels when they came through.
I did the odd bit on the front to keep the pace reasonably high, even attacking up the Hoggenberg at one point to prompt a chase to bring back a Pretorius rider who had gone a fair distance clear, but other than that it was a fairly uneventful race, although I think another rider from the 3/4 may have got away without me noticing at some point. The worst bit came on the penultimate go up the climb when we were once again caught by the E/1/2 race, with the Ipswich rider amongst them and from that point it became an E/1/2/3/4 for the final lap and the sprint. Starting reasonably far forward, I took the clear inside line for the sprint; I think I took about 5th in the mixed bunch, with the Ipswich rider winning having done the extra lap and another rider 3/4 either beating me in the sprint or being off the front, I’m not entirely sure which! Whatever happened it left me 3rd, which gives me enough points to move up to 3rd Cat and leaves me happy in the knowledge that I outsprinted a fair few higher category riders.

Jobe.

Congratulations to Jobe on moving up to 3rd Cat.

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