18 riders attended this week’s Friday Training Race. It was again a very international crowd with representation from New Zealand, Ireland, the UK, Germany, Namibia, Canada and the US. I am pleased to report no wheels were exchanged across teams, so the race jury did not have to hand out time penalties. There were some technical difficulties, though, so some riders were dropped out of the pack early. This, combined with an unusually high pace during the first 1/2 lap resulted in the group being spread out over a 1 minute span by the first climb.
H.-G. Becker was again present for the race and predictably pushed the pace up the first big climb. C. Schumm and F. Garcia managed to stay close enough over the crest to regroup with him. A chase group formed about 10 seconds back with N. Law, C. Wiedmann and F. Egan (racing with the Bs). Becker was uncomfortable with the closeness of the chasers so put in a dig after the bridge to consolidate the gap. On the second big climb, Becker again pushed the pace with only Schumm able to close the gap this time. Over the remainder of the lap, H. Eckersley managed to bridge up to the chase group after suffering an early mechanical and Garcia dropped back to the chase after giving up his efforts in no-man’s-land. Wash, rinse, repeat - Becker again opened a gap on the next big climb and Schumm again managed to close it over the crest. The chase continued to lose ground to the pair’s strong effort. On the final climb, Becker put the final nail into the coffin and managed to open a gap he held to the finish. Schumm soloed to finish second. The chase group split on the second climb with Garcia and Eckersley going clear. Garcia won the sprint for third.
In the B group, the unusually fast starting pace broke the pack up into small groups early. With Egan catching on to the A chase group, J. Greig and J. Lemon formed an initial chase group behind with G. Christopher and A. Robbins following. On the second climb, Greig managed to open up a gap over Lemon. He pushed on solo after this point as Lemon went back to the chasers. Christopher, Robbins and Lemon worked together during the ensuing lap until the big climb. On the climb, the three chasers split up with Robbins managing to take the lead. Christopher followed with Lemon somewhat further back. The rest of the race was a time trial for the B group as the riders all soloed in.
J. Gill was the only rider to choose to join the C group this week. Unfortunately a mechanical ended his race early. He chose to complete the course while watching the others race rather than packing it up.
Results:
A Group
- H-G Becker 1:00:28 (41.4 km/h)
2.C. Schumm 0:01:00 - F. Garcia 0:01:50
- H. Eckersley s.t.
- N. Law 0:01:56
- C. Wiedmann 0:03:17
B Group
- F. Egan 1:02:31 (40.0 km/h)
- J. Greig 0:01:49
- G. Christopher 0:03:43
- S. Tanner 0:10:13
- T. Marshall 0:12:49
-1 Lap - W. Briant 0:00:18
DNF J. Lemon
C Group
- J. Gill 1:18:42 (31.8 km/h)
Note: Time gaps for entertainment purposes only. Corrections to placings and race narrative are welcome. I have skipped listing anybody whose Strava activity I could not find. If you wish to be included, let me know.
Event Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/996900647022050/
Strava fly-by: http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/?utm_source=strava_activity_header#309590925,Dc9zEhfbcxIc4XMSfOJzEkbkcxJP5nMSLu5zEkn2cxL3/HMSyAN0EpkLdBJoDnQSFxB0EgYqdBI=