Road Team at Traditional Season Opener, Saturday 8 March 2008
The Spring Chicken RR traditionally kicks off the road team’s season. James Fox, Paul Londors, Pete Smith, Richard Wood and Mike Wragg lined up for the start in Charndon, Bucks.
Pic 1: “Left to right: James, Paul, Mike, Pete and Richard.”
This is a relatively short race, at just over 2 hours, and as expected attacks came from the gun. The race split on a fast tailwind section, with Mike in a group of seven chasing a lead group of eight. Both groups shared the pace well, with the leaders matching the chasers and the gap remaining at 1 minute 30 for several laps. The speed of the bunch was also high, with teams not giving up on the chase. PCA rider Tony Gibb eventually escaped and brought five riders up to swell the chase group to 13. Now too large to work effectively, the gap to the leaders started to grow.
With one lap to go the lead group was assured of staying away, and attacks came in turn from the three Pearl Izumi riders including Matt Jones, formerly of Team Keyne. This strategy would rarely fail, and indeed the eventual winner was Liam Holohan.
Mike picked up 18th despite cramping muscles – not enough tonic water, obviously! The bunch came into sight minutes later in a ragged collection of groups, with Paul’s strong finish taking 35th, the top spot in the largest of these.
Pic 2: “2 laps to go and the chasing group forms an echelon in the strong wind”
