Report by Road Race Secretary Paul Butler
So the Sydenham road racing team kicked off it’s new campaign at the new Gravesend Cyclopark on Sunday with a 3rds/4ths race of 90 minutes around the 2.7km course. 7 riders represented our club. I’m gonna say that again SEVEN riders, well done lads 😉 Oh and we had supporters like you have never seen, families, clubmates, thanks all of you for coming too it really was a great day.
So, to the race; with enough climbing to scar me for life and a horrendous wind, at least the temperatures were on our side as 60 riders set off on a sunny Sunday criterium.
Unlike most 3rd and 4ths cat races that I’m used to (ending in a bunch sprint) this race really was about survival, the peloton splintering throughout the race. Any tactics learnt the week before shall for now be reserved for elsewhere!!
Mike Hanson and I managed to finish in the front group with Mike looking particularly strong – a great new asset to our club. Credit to the rest of our guys; Rob Thatcher, Kevin Beamont and Derek Taylor finishing the full distance (considering Rob’s power meter was showing 300 watts going into the wind during the WARM UP you can see it was a tough day out….!). Jamie Walker put in a galliant ride too and last but not least what happened to our main man for the this course, Richard Van De Birthwhsitle? Richard unfortunately had a little crash but courageously got back on and finished. One minute I was riding next to him and the next minute…….very unlike Richard 😉
What a pleasure it is to see so many riders at a race and you should all be very proud of yourselves – that was one of the hardest races that I have done in 2011 but you all got stuck in. If we keep this up we’ll be a force to be reckoned with next year.
If you fancy it, the next one is Sunday 6th November. We’ll all have forgotten how hard it was by then!
Full result available HERE on LondonCycleSport.com.