Richard takes fine result against top opposition

John May Road Race - 07/05/2006 - Wakefield, North Yorkshire

Richard braves the elements and is rewarded with a fine result against first cat riders.

Richards race diary....

I had been following the weather forecast for the weekend, so I knew it was going to be a wet one.

I think in the end it rained from start to finish, which made for a tough days racing.

12 laps of 6 miles, making a total of 72 miles, my longest race for a while, but good preparation for the divs in two weeks time.

A few brief flurries of activity on the first 3 laps came to nothing, before a group of around 14 riders went clear, including late entry, and favourite, Cherry Valley 10 winner Wayne Randle. With the group containing a number of other well known 1st category riders, I thought that our race was essentially over. At half distance, with the rain pouring torrentially, I was considering calling it a day, and getting back first to the free food on offer after the race.

But then we caught a glimpse of the lead group. The momentum had gone, and we were catching them very uickly, and within a lap, we had caught them. There were two escapees from the group, Wayne, and (?) had gone. We were now racing for third, and I decided to see the race through.

There were continued attack, and the pace was now very much up and down. I had a couple of attempts to get away with a small group, but everything was chased down until a group of three, including Mark Mallendar nicked
off the front with 3 to go.

This small group kept a small lead of around 15 seconds for the remainder of the race, and we were sprining for 6th. I found some energy in my legs up the climb for the final time, and as others cracked I managed 9th in the bunch sprint, and 14th overall.

I was pretty pleased with this result, considering I could have been back at the HQ.