Sorry about the short delay in getting this one out, your editor was enjoying a short break in the cooler temperatures of East Anglia! This week is slightly shorter than normal, but has some important news, especially if you enjoy barbecues!

This week:

Club Social and BBQ

Cream First Series

CX Training sessions

Club Social and Barbecue

This Saturday, 25th, sees the club social and Barbecue, at the Exeter Squash Club for an afternoon of food, drinks, chat, and sun. The club will provide some food, but if you have any special dietary requirements or don’t want to risk missing out please bring your own.

To kick the day off there will be three ride options, all finishing at the Squash Club (where showers and toilets will be available).

A 50k social ride going down the estuary path from Exeter to Dawlish and back.

A 100k hilly social ride over Dartmoor, going out via Moretonhampstead to Princetown for a cafe stop, and then back via Dartmeet, Widdecombe in the Moor, and Bovey Tracey.

A 100k club ride on the EWCC classic ‘Blackcat’ route, a steady, flat-ish route with a mid-ride effort up the Blackcat climb.

The hilly social ride departs at 8am from County Hall, the other 2 rides depart at 9am from the Squash Club. All rides aiming to return between 1pm and 2pm.

GPX files for all routes are available on the club website. Sign up on Spond.

Cream First Race Series

After a great event last Thursday, with super results for EWCC members (see EWCC Westpoint Circuit Race 1 – report – Exeter Wheelers CC for a detailed report and results), this week sees the second EWCC hosted event.

Although we previously said you could register on the day without providing details in advance, as we’re using timing chips it would really help speed up registration if you could send Gideon the following before Thursday:

• Date of Birth
• BC Membership Number
• Which race you’re entering: 3/4, E123, or both

Thanks for your help on this — it really does make the sign-on process much smoother!

Cyclo Cross Training

These CX training sessions are being provided for women and youth riders to get you ready for the new season. Registration is open now, and we suspect they will be popular so if your interested get signed up soon.

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