It was a happy night for the Wheelers in their hosting of the latest round of the South-West’s ‘Cream First’ Circuit Race Series, with home riders winning both of the races that took place on a warm evening at Westpoint last night Thursday 16th of July.

Above – riders on the Westpoint Circuit as the sun sets

In the Category 4 race there became established a group of three riders away from the rest of the field – Morgan Centini and Seamus Sheard of EWCC, plus Mantas Arlauskas of Bridgwater CC. They looked a solid group, but were broken up when Seamus suffered a ‘mechanical’, or perhaps more accurately an ‘electrical’ -the battery of his Di2 became flat, resulting in him stuck in one gear. Seamus did his best to stay with it, but the handicap of racing in a single gear was too much, and he began losing ground on the remaining two despite his efforts,. Morgan and Mantas continued working together on the front, and were never in great danger of being caught by any chaser. In the closing stages of the race Morgan made his winning move “Yeah, I could sort of feel that my break companion was weakening, so I went for it rather than risk losing it in a sprint, and I am very pleased to have won my first race !”.

Above – 4th category race winner Morgan Centini pushing the pace ahead of Mantas Arlauskas

Seamus Sheard, despite his bejiggered gears, managed to hang on to third place, whilst new EWCC recruit Jack Hussey is enjoying his racing and claimed 4th spot.

The second race of the evening, a Category 2/3/4 event, featured a strong field of south-west riders. With a third of the race completed,  two riders were well out in front, these being Steve Lampier and Bayley Woodger, who led a chasing group that included EWCC’s Andrew Whittemore. Bayley Woodger, however, still only in his teens, struggled with the pace being set by the experienced Steve Lampier, and was forced to drop back to the chasing group. Lampier ploughed on and with only 15 minutes or so remaining was still looking strong out there on his own, and perhaps good for the win. But this was not to be. The gap began to shrink, shrink, until with 6 or so laps of the approximately one mile circuit remaining he was gobbled up. Andrew Whittemore, who had looked strong all race, capitalised on the snatch of a lull that so often occurs when a ‘catch’ is made, attacked, got the gap on his companions and solo’ed all the way in to the finish, winning by ten or so seconds.

Exeter Wheelers would like to thank Jon Hare, Pete Bishop, Gideon Aroussi, Andy Webb, Craig Lawson, Stuart Higgins, Dave Wilkinson, Phil Harris and James Atkinson for giving of their time and energy to run the event.

The second of the two Exeter Wheelers Westpoint races will be held on Thursday the 23rd of July – needed: Helpers and Riders ! Don’t forget it’s free entry for EWCC riders. For more info see the British Cycling page for the event

Exeter Wheelers last night provided the East Devon Evening Ten number 8, the final ‘counting’ round in the series. This one was moved from it’s normal Wednesday night slot to a Tuesday due to England playing footy this evening in the men’s World Cup.

It was hoped to have run the last event in the series next week Wednesday 22^nd of July on a new (& somewhat ‘sporty)’ course nearer Exeter, as an event ‘wrap-up’, but delays with course risk assessment etc have rendered this plan untenable. There will, though, be one further event in the series and it will be the usual Wednesday evening,  probably the 5^th or the 12^th  of August. There will be prizes for category winners in the overall league, and bottles of Exeter Brewery ale for many others. We hope to be able to secure the use of a small hall in Honiton as race HQ. We will post all the details up when we know what is what.

Back to last night 14^th of July – A favourable easterly wind helped the 17 riders towards good times, and another pleasing aspect was the number of time trial debutants putting a number on their back and getting stuck in to the business of giving your all on the pedals for ten glorious Devon miles.

Speediest on the night, he’s certainly in good form this season, was Exeter Wheeler James Greenaway on a time trial machine. James was a good half minute up on 2^nd placed Stu Pollard, also EWCC, after the first turn, and although the latter had a strong last leg on his steel-framed bike (red and shiny, v. nice) James won by 44 seconds; 22:28 v 23:12.

Stu Pollard, however, does have the satisfaction of winning the overall league title.

Third place, and another red shiny bike (a carbon Red Chilli) was Jimmy Richards, in his last season as a senior – next season he joins the ranks of the v40’s. Jimmy would like to have been riding his time trial machine, but that was wrecked by a culpable motorist in the Four Firs earlier in the year. Jimmy rode a 23:22, ten seconds behind Stu Pollard and ten seconds ahead of fourth placed Billy Strickland-Boundy.

25 year-old Billy was riding his first ever time trial, so his 23:32 on the demanding and not fast Honiton Club Course is an impressive debut. Billy has also entered the Dawlish criterium race – in at the deep end ! . . . . and a deep end with piranhas and crocodiles I’d say. Billy would’ve perhaps got third last night if he hasn’t over-anticipated the first turn by 100 metres and done a loop around the brick cross junction ahead of the correct turn. oops. Billy said afterwards of his first ‘ten’ – “BRILLIANT ! FANTASTIC !”

EWCC’s Rob Simmonds went better than last week, his 23:51 giving him 5^th spot. Chuffy Rob will be off to the National 24 Hour TT Championships end of next week, one of two EWCC members doing so.

Sixth placed Shane Kingsland was also making his debut, and got round in 24:02. I believe it was Shane who said afterwards “It was great fun, amazing, really good . . . . though it did make me feel a bit sick . . . “ 

John Baker kept up his run of getting round comfortably under evens, on 28:32, as indeed did all four of the V60 riders – David Hall in his first TT for two years on 27:59, David Gray on 28:27 and David Fleming on 28:43.

Top-placed and indeed the only female competitor was Denise Burrows of Aerocoach with a time of 26 minutes and 10 seconds for the ten miles.

It was a good night, and the club would like to thank Mike Rose, Ken Evans, Ann Owens, Pete Bishop, Phil Harris, and James Atkinson for running the whole thing.

Here are the full results from last night 14th of July, and the final table: