Southdowns Bikes Cycle Club: Putting the Spring into Spring Series!

What a difference a week makes. Last week we were contending with snow and frost bite, this week the sun shone and I raced in shorts for the first time since September!

The weather helped bring another stellar turnout for the third round of the Gorrick Series at Crowthorne near Camberley (there were over 600 racers at the previous round). The course was pretty flat, with nice flowing singletrack which lead to some very tight racing. In the Masters race 5^th through to 16^th was covered by only 50 seconds!

Again my start was not the best and I got bogged down with slower riders for much of the first lap. With few hills on which to attack it was very hard to make progress but I did slowly pull my way back up through the field. The Masters race starts a few minutes after the Super Vets and we spend the entire race picking our way through the back markers. Catch one at the wrong time and you can rapidly lose 10 seconds on the guy in front and when the racing is this close that can make quite a difference. As the last lap began I could see a chain of around 6 riders up ahead including Alex Taylor. I pushed hard and caught them by the finish but was only able to wiggle past a few before we crossed line. Alex finishing 7th just a handful of seconds ahead of me yet again!

Elsewhere Ian P was on the podium after making it to the finish without a puncture for once! Steve was an excellent 4th in the Super Vets despite stopping for a flat and James was 7th in Sport. Matt is planning a proper bike but meanwhile brought home the fully rigid inside the top 20.