Bletchingley 2/3

[Ian A4size]

As Keith said,
Welcome back.

[Mulberry]

Dan - glad to hear you're out of hospital. I hope you fully recover soon.

Toks - here's some more detail from yesterday. I sent most of this to Dave Hayward who compiled a report for LCS (shame he didn''t remove my typos! ).

Sunday's race started off with some energetic flurries of activity on the first lap which saw a group of 4 ride clear including Toby Neave. This group held a slender gap of 30 seconds, but were pulled back on the second lap. More attacks by riders followed with Henry Furniss, WyndyMilla, followed by Jake Martin, Pendradon with the most successful attempt, riding clear from Outwood village. Their glory was short-lived as the key break formed on the 4th lap as the bunch thundered up the hill to Bletchingley with the bunch strung out up through Bletchingley Village High Street, the elastic finally snapped allowing 17 riders to go clear which included Matt Green, VL Technics,

Chris Macnamara, Corley cycles, Ian Pain, Ben Jacobs, Stuart Spies, Mike Debney , from London Dynamo, Alan Ridler, Team Cycle Kingdom, Plus Gary Dodd & Andy Betts, La Fuga Sigma Sport, Andrew Dolan, Team Toachim, Andrew Colvin , Bigfoot, Dante Carpenter, Asfra Racing Team, Marcus Brueton, Norwood Paragon CC, James Jackson, RG Active RT, Jake Martin, Pendragon, Matthew Pilkington, Progressive Cycle Coaching .

After a bit of cajoling (largely Chris & Andy urging Dynamo to pull their weight) the group settled into a rhythm and worked fairly smoothly to open the gap on the tiring bunch. After 2 laps away the gap was approaching 2 minutes and growing. It was in the last 2 laps that the real attacks began. Ian Paine London Dynamo made the first move trying to ride away, quickly gaining 20-30 seconds. Matt Green jumped the group over the hill to Outwood to join Ian. The break became more animated with riders watching each other for the next move.

Three riders bit the bullet to chase on the approach to the small hill to catch up with Ian and Matt. Not wanting to miss out I also jumped across to this with Chris MacNamara on my wheel followed by the rest of the break.

The toughness of the course was now started to it’s toll as tiring riders started letting wheels go, causing gaps to develop. With four riders pushing on ahead, Betts, Ridler & Carpenter forced the others to chase to stay in contention. Hard up the hill with Jackson, me and Doddy in close pursuit, but it was only Dodd who made the gap to join his team-mate with the leaders. I just didn't have the legs to get on and chased 2up for a while in vain with Jackson.

The lead five swiftly pulled away with 1.5 laps to go as the chasers eventually re-grouped and began to work but their pursuit proved fruitless as they made no impression on the leaders eventually finished 50 seconds behind the leaders. The leaders caught Green and Paine and reached the finish line en masse for a furious sprint where 2nd category Ridler out sprinted the others by a bike length giving him just enough time for his victory salute for the win of his life Green 2nd and Macnamara 3rd. I lead in the chase group for 8th place out sprinting Jackson and MacCarthy who impressively rode across 2up for 25mins from the bunch with team-mate Kristenen.

It was a war of attrition won by ex Army CU rider the Ridler who struck again. Will Gotham City ever be safe?

Sylv - you would have loved it I'm sure

[Jon C C on a Bianchi]

Great to hear you're on the way to a full recovery, Dan. Take care and take it easy. Best wishes. Jon

[Marcus]

Wishing you a speedy recovery Dan.

Great report Marcus and congratulations to the Ridler on a very fine win.

[Sylv]

[quote="BC"]Marcus Breuton.

[Sylv]

Dan - the turbo is there when you want to use it

Oh and you should write more race reports

[Toks]

Great Job once again Marcus

[Andrew G]

Good to hear you're back at home Dan , wishing you all the best for a speedy recovery.

[Sylv]

[quote="Daniel Gee"]I shall see you on the road real soon.

[Iliya]

Dan,

Good to hear that you're out of hospital and feeling better. I'm sure the scans and check will confirm no serious damage and hope to see you on the bike soon.

Iliya