Alex Pantelides and Gavin Mitchell were the only representatives in the 2/3 race. With a field of over 70 riders there wasnt much space to move around in the bunch. Attacks were going in simultaneously and Alex was among the riders trying to get away, but in the end it came down to a bunch sprint.
2/3 Cats :-
41 Gavin Mitchell
Twickenham CC
na Alex Pantelides
Twickenham CC
Chris Sellings was the only representative in the 4ths in his first ever race.
4th Cats :-
6 Chris Sellings
Twickenham CC
London Women’s
Cycle Racing League 1 :-
9 Tina Reid
Twickenham CC
11 Jayne Rendall Hannan
Twickenham CC
23 Clare Chambers
Twickenham CC
24 Sol Findley
Twickenham CC
34 Francesca
Farran-Lee Twickenham CC
3rd Cats :-
52 Corrine Hall
Team Corridori
69 Tom Bell
Twickenham CC
74 Micheal Miach
Twickenham CC
81 Tom Sutherland
Twickenham CC
4th Cats :-
36 Stephen Rush
Twickenham CC
43 Patrick Lee
Twickenham CC
56 Iain Palmer
Twickenham CC
63 Jonathan Furniss
Twickenham CC
Stephen Rush Summarises:-
"...in which I learn some lessons the hard way..."
"4 TCC-ers lined up at the start for this one - Iain, Jon, Patrick and I. It was Patrick's 2nd ever race, Jon's first since about 1990 and my first ever (my first ever was supposed to be at Thruxton last w/e but having made the effort to get down there I found that with 10 mins to go I'd replaced my cleats with the wrong ones so couldn't race. Not a schoolboy error - even the schoolboys in the junior race had the right ****ing cleats! To their eternal credit not one TCC-er took the p1ss. Doh! doesn't even get close. Lesson #1 - check your gear before you get there. So if anyone wants a pair of only slightly used Look Delta cleats FOC, let me know...). This lack of experience showed before we'd even started - we found ourselves at the front of the grid with the rest of the field using us as lycra-clad wind-breaks. Ho hum. The course is very flat so there was nothing much to break the bunch up and consequently we were still all together half way through. So rather than hide in the middle of the bunch - if I wanted a 30 mile social ride I'd have gone on the club ride (!) - and with nothing much going on, I thought I'd have a go. I managed to stay out for about half a lap before Iain went past me. I tried in vain to stay on his wheel but by the time I'd dragged myself up there like the wheezing geriatric that I am, the bunch had swallowed us up. Lesson #2 - pick your moment. Comparing notes afterwards, I'd noticed that Jon had been doing a lot of work near the front and he'd apparently thought the same about me. So lesson #3 - get organised. There were one or two "cosy" moments - including one evasive braking manouevre that had me going along on my front wheel only for a while (been trying that on the mountain bike for years with no success), but in general it was pretty good-natured. So after we'd finished, I was a little surprised to hear a load of shouting from the 3rd Cats on one of their early laps. I hung around for the next lap long enough to hear the immortal words "F*ck Off! Or Ride Faster!" from one disgruntled bargee. Splendid. The results aren't up yet but I think we all finished more or less in the middle of the bunch of around 70 riders so in football terms that's a solid mid-table performance all round. "
Sandy rode what is known as the Paris Roubaix of Essex. The
field was split on the first lap after a blistering pace of 60kph was
set by the leaders. Sandy hung on to finish 14th out of 40 in arguable
Britain's hardest Road Race.
14 Sandy King Endura
Racing
Declan Higgins Account:-
"Unfortunately i suffered a pretty nasty crash whilst riding in the middle of the bunch after about 60 miles gone. Luckily though i've got away with only getting some major road rash in more than one place, and if it wasn't for my now broken helmet then it could've been much worse, there's also a possibility of being able to race on Saturday. But before the crash i was going pretty well and was able to hold my own in the bunch so there some positives to take from this. As for the race i think that two separate breaks pulled away from the bunch which i was in, and were able to keep up a high enough speed to stay away, whether these two groups joined I don't know."
I think this example shows how useful the Helmet is and how you can't afford to not wear one while riding a bike.
In this weeks Cycling Weekly, The Surrey Rumble was featured in the Sportive reports, if you were unable to get a copy you can read the report here.
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