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
