Two top tens for North Roaders at Glendene Road Race
Sun 09 Sep 2007
Glendene Road Race, Great Saling, Essex - Sunday 9th September
3/4 cat - 77km
1/2/3 cat - 110km
Five North Roaders took part in the Glendene road races at Great Saling, Essex. Jonathan Appleby, Ian Coles, John McDowall and myself started the 4-lap race for 3rd and 4th category riders whilst Trevor Burke was the sole North Road entrant in the 6-lap 1/2/3 cat event.
I’d been going well at the Welwyn Track League two days previously so I was hoping to get a good placing or at the very least to help my teammates. The course is fairly flat and if it was like a usual third cat race then I expected a bunch sprint. However that didn’t stop Jon, Ian and myself from trying to get into a break. The first lap was steady. On the second lap I moved towards the front close to Ian and Jon looking for that one break that may stay away.
As expected nothing stuck, every break was chased down within a couple of minutes. I chased a six man break that looked like it was working well. However we were caught and I moved back in the bunch for a bit of a rest.
The last lap started and Ian managed to ride away with a Harlow CC rider and they got a good gap. Jon did well to slow the chase and I thought that Ian had made a good move that could even last to the finish. They were absorbed by the bunch with five miles to go and Ian eased off feeling the effects of his crash of three weeks ago.
The last few miles were hairy, half the bunch wanted to get near the front. I was in the top 20 for the last kilometre, feeling good and looking for a gap. Jon found a way to the front by riding on the grass but I couldn’t get through and finished about 20th. After the race one of the riders commented that he didn’t contest the sprint as he wanted to view the crash from the back of the bunch. Fortunately there was no crash. John let the bunch go before the sprint and rolled in a few minutes later. Jonathan came 10th and Ian finished in one piece.
Trevor finished in 8th place in the hard mans race.
Richard