St Neots CC promoted race on 25th March

Saturday saw the 4th race in the NCRA spring series. The race was held on the Keysoe circuit and was the first of three being promoted by the club this year. After the previous weekend’s washout this Saturday the racers were treated to a fine warm day, but with just enough of a breeze to make the headwind bite.

Competing for St Neots, in a (nearly) full field, were Simon Elkington, Matt Gurnell, Lee Houghton, and Dan Grant.

The circuit heads south to Bolnhurst, takes a left to the Bushmead crossroads then turns north to Little Staughton. It’s a fast run down Spring hill, then left at the bottom to the old Kangaroo pub then back to Keysoe via Mill Hill and the final drag up to the village and the finish line. The racers had three laps to finish.

I was over on the finish line with Adrian Lancaster following progress over race radio. The first 4th cat group had already been attacked with a couple of riders launching off the front. By the time they got round to us they had split with the lead rider from Peterborough CC having a 30s lead over the chasing group.

Over the course of the next lap he extended his lead over the chasing 4th cats. Further back the scratch group were being pushed hard by a strong 2nd cat bunch lead by Cycle Team OnForm. They were sweeping up the intermediate 3rd cat groups and they started the final lap as a large bunch of over twenty riders.

The OnForm riders, mostly young lads, continued to set the pace with slower riders being dropped with every mile. Bit by bit they caught all the remaining 4th cats - all that is except for the lone Peterborough rider. If there had been another lap the OnForm lads would have caught him, but in the end he had too much time and they ran out of road. So 4th cat David Sargent-Szczniak for Peterborough CC took a well deserved solo win followed by 2nd Cats Ollie Jones and Robert Ward for OnForm. Simon Elkington was the best placed St Neots rider finishing a respectable 12th.

We had a good safe race and it couldn’t have happened without the support of club members and their families, so special thanks to:

James Dent
Tom Dunkley (you’ll get a race next time)
Dave ‘wigman’ Hennessy
Adrian Lancaster
Alec MacAndrew
Sam MacDonald
Jo and Simon Murphy
Gary Newman
Annis Ostler
Tim Pennell (who knew he would make such a good parking attendant?)
Vince Plosky
Joyce and Dave Richards
Simon Rinaldo & boys
Gareth Smith
Wayne Tunnah
Steve Walker & Millie
Dave Wilson
Plus Stacy Davis for First aid and Andrew Weatherby and Bob Mitchell for Commissairing.

Finally, in case you haven’t heard, Jacob Hennessy won on the Keysoe circuit 2 years ago. On Sunday he won the U23 Gent-Wevelgem Cup of Nations Race. Great things come from the grassroots!