Report by Paul Butler, Sydenham Road Race Secretary.
The clocks have changed, the days are getting longer and so The Evening Crits have begun!
Jack Gregorie kicked off Sydenham’s evening in the Youth A race and is looking more and more comfortable with the speed of these races. Unfortunately for Jack he missed the decisive break for the third week in a row! Credit where it’s due though as Jack jumped off the front of his group and chased the front group for a good lap or so before accepting that it wasn’t to be, dropping back to the second group and finishing comfortably in the bunch a brilliant 6th place in his age group.
Rob Thatcher and Paul Butler were up next in the 3rds and 4ths race, although the drama had already started just signing on – the Organiser suggested to Paul that any 3rd Cat who was “serious” should be racing against the Elites in the E123 race! Despite these ‘motivational words’from the kind gentleman, instead of racing against a group of riders half their age and weight who are paid to do this for a living, Paul and Rob opted for a level playing field in the 3rds and 4ths race!
With 44 starters and not much daylight the race was full of attacks all the way through but with 3 laps to go it was still all together and Paul had Rob on his wheel. Coming around the final right hander Paul delivered Rob onto the finishing straight in the first 3 and although in hindsight it was a 100m or so too early, Rob finished a very credible 5th! We are on the map!!!!
A few days later on Saturday 16th April Paul and Rob raced another Hillingdon 3rds and 4ths race, this time in a field of 50. It was Rob’s birthday so Paul offered to play at being Mark Renshaw yet again and took the lessons learnt on Tuesday to deliver Rob to 200m from the line this time. Rob’s power meter showed just shy of 1400 watts as he jumped off of Paul’s wheel for the line, finishing in a photo finish and a fantastic third place. Happy Birthday Rob! All prize money shall be shared with his lead out man!!
So in one week, Sydenham placed 3rd, 5th and 6th…….That’s what I’m talking about!