A warm evening for the latest ‘race of truth’ in the series. There was some breeze, but mainly crosswards, certainly not the tough westerly that so frequently challenge the riders on the two outward legs.
With an Open 25 taking place down the A38 on the S4/25 course luring riders away, tonight’s turnout was a disappointing 11 riders, but hey ho it was a convivial affair for the nice set of folk who did turn out, riders and officials alike.
Fastest on the night, and riding his first event on the course since pre-covid was Richard Gorst of Saddleback Racing, who elected to race on a gravel bike . . . a new category ! Fat tyres, but then, with the challenges posed to riders by the number of potholes on our nation’s roads these days maybe there’s somethng to be said for such a choice!
Richard’s time on 23:31 was highly creditable. Afterwards he was very complimentary of the organisers of the event, saying “In a world of constant change it’s lovely to come back to this event, this course, and find it’s the same lovely experience as when I rode 7 years and more ago, it’s lovely that these races are still ongoing”
In second place was Del Stafford, the fastest of the TT bike riders, with 24:15, and the smiley Jimmy Richards was 3rd half a minute or so behind with 24:41.
The fastest Exeter Wheeler was Stuart Pollard with 25:16. He might have done a 25:12 if he hadn’t dallied before the start and arrived at the starting timekeeper 4 seconds late. Stuart still leads the League Table. There will be prizes for the various age categories at the end of the series . . .
Next week’s race is set to be on Wednesday. However, should the England men’s team win their quarter final v. Norway on Saturday then they will be in semi-final action at 8pm on Wednesday,.so we would look to move the evening ten to Tuesday night, as long as we are able to gain police permission for this change. We will put info out here on the website and on the Exeter Wheelers facebook site (the ‘group’ one).
The final event of the series will either be on the old A30 at Pocombe Bridge near Ide, or more likely, on the Honiton Club Course, on the 22nd of July. Again we will put info out here plus on the facebook site.
These evening’s event was an Exeter Wheelers promotion, and the club would like to thank Ann Owen, Didier Lebatteux, Ken Evans, Diogo Pacheco, Phil Harris and Pete Bishop for turning out to run the event, bless you all.
Results from this evening –
And here is the current league table –
