Mark Jones crossing the line

John Cull Mem

Saturday 21st May 2005

On a warmish Saturday morning in Lancashire, myself, Ian Edwards and Malcolm Ridgeway arrived ready to race the John Cull Memorial Road Race. We were all feeling good after last weeks Bike Factory GP and ready for a good race. We knew from the start list that there were some good juniors there which would raise the pace from last years outing.

Rolling out from the HQ along the lanes down to the Bickerstaffe circuit there was an epic crash where a rider (not fully awake) rode into a fresh excavation and crashed, not his fault though as the area was heavily disguised by several traffic cones. A good start for the race and no blame laid at my door Great!!

As anticipated the pace was high for a cat 4 event 27mph average for the whole race, which is quite fast I’m told? Anyway we all worked hard keeping it together for the first few laps then Ian had to retire on the third lap due to breathing problems, a leftover ailment from the flu he has recently suffered. Myself and Mal soldiered on until the end, working in the main bunch chasing down the earlier break of Team Kenesis and one other rider. The gap got up to 90 seconds at one point but we managed to claw it back to 47 secs by the finale. The bunch ended in a gallop with about six of us being rewarded with 12th place for our efforts.

All in all a good race and result considering the pace, hard luck to Ian hope your ailments clear up soon.

I would like to thank Sandra, Amanda, Charlie and Will for their vocal support during the race.

Thanks to Mark Jones for this report

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