Last Chance Points Grabber – Sun 27th Sept 09

Herts Wheelers Road Race - Sunday 27th Septembet 2009

Three North Road riders took their places on the start line of the penultimate race in the ERRL calendar. Frank Rawlins, Simon Checkley and Jamie Anderson rolled out of the neutralized zone on a beautifully still day for 7 laps of the Whitwell circuit. To summarise in the style of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, those laps went something like this: steady, pacey, bonkers, tiredy, feisty, cagey & wheezy.

Frank felt the pace early on and retired around the third lap. Simon manfully hung on (perhaps motivated by a spirited ride from Ed Checkley, despite recent birthday celebrations) but the aggressive riding on the 5th lap saw the second NR yretirement. He wasn’t alone; the field by this stage was considerable smaller than the 60 riders who started. By the 5th lap 9 riders had escaped and despite the best efforts of Richard da Silva of Stevenage CC, they remained away until the end. 

One or two concerted efforts by Jamie to chase splits meant that the ascents of the principle hill became increasingly strained, and twice he was dropped only to fight back to the bunch on the decent and more technical sections approaching the finish line. He eventually finished safely in the main bunch but just out of the points. Not a great result for NR then, but a spirited, aggressive and well-ridden race where most (if not all) of the riders contributed.