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Saturday 4th June saw a hot but windy day for the 2011
Southend Wheelers Club Road Race Championship. In the final third of the race, Simon's advantage, he had lapped the entire field, ensured that the chasing group were battling for 2nd and 3rd and first veteran. Graham upped the pace and fellow veteran Mike Knott lost contact with the group ensuring that Graham would finish the race as first veteran. However, this effort may have cost him a podium place as Ben and George left him in the sprint for the line with Under 18 George wrapping up a great race for the Juniors, narrowly pipping Ben for 2nd. Main Race Result The Ladies Race soon saw Time Trial specialist Jenny Patience and novice rider Jan Harvey break free from the field. Jenny followed Jan's wheel for a few laps before establishing an advantage that she held to the end of the race. Jan held on to second place, ahead of fellow novice Emma Curtis. Both ladies enjoyed the race and are keen to improve next year. Carol Cartwright led the rest of the field home. Ladies Race Result After the ladies race, 18 riders took to the track for the Novices and All-comers race. The race started at a frantic pace with a breakaway group of 8 riders pulling away from the remainder of the group, driven on by father and son All-comers Bruce and James Gander. Working together the Ganders put distance between themselves and the chasing pack with youth triumphing over experience as James pulled away to win comfortably from dad Bruce. Wheeler Peter Swanwick put in a strong ride to finish in third place. Further down the field Chris Smith edged out Kevin Harwood in a sprint finish.
Novice &
All-comers Race Result The final race of the day was a sprint
elimination race around the short top circuit. After a neutralised first
lap, after each subsequent lap the last placed rider is eliminated until
there is only one rider left. This guarantees fast and exciting racing
as the riders look to maintain position but expend as little energy as
possible. The race was harsh on the 3 ladies who entered and were the
first three riders eliminated. As the pace increased, riders were soon
caught out of position and surprisingly Graham Pearl and Robin Bevan
were soon eliminated. By now the race was being controlled by the three
youngest riders, Simon Alexander, Ben Willy and George Hannah, and each
lap saw another racing veteran eliminated. Martin Harris saw off club
president Dave Whybrow to be the last veteran. In a reversal of the
podium places from the main race, Ben Willy extracted some revenge over
George Hannah by claiming second place but had no answer to Simon
Alexander who won his second race of the day. |
