Welsh RR Championships 2004

Sunday 30th May 2004

The Deeside where well represented in the RR champs in South Wales me, Rob Partridge, John Skates, Norman Hughes, Andy Windsor, Steve Lloyd, Simon Oliver and Steve Bradbrook rode the main race with Keith riding in the vets. I traveled down on the Saturday with Phil and Andy Windsor in one car and Lloydie Rob and John in an other and Simon on his own as he had to go to the football after the race, we had worked out the race needed to average 28 mph for him to get to the game in time…

As we got down for about 19:00 and it was still light Bradie came and met us at the hotel so we could look at the last few miles of the race. Bradie described the last climb as been a bit of a drag, note to anyone reading this DON’T enter any race he classes as hilly.

The morning of the race was looking grim, it hadn’t started raining but we knew it would happen. Luckily I was on a pair of the carbons and as I was about to find out down the first descent the braking surfaces don’t respond the same in the wet. The race rolled out going over the ‘bit of drag’ we would come back over this from the other side but with about 80 miles in the legs. The race was neutralized but my legs felt really good, then the rain started. Coming into a right hander at the bottom of the hill I lost about ½ minute trying to get round it.

The flag came in and the Deeside went from the gun (so I am told as I was still chasing back on from an inability to stop on the descent). By the time I made my way to the front John had gone clear in a group of 6. Seeing we only had one Deeside rider and still having a bit of momentum from the chase I jumped across to him. Next Rob came across with Geriant Thomas and last to get on was Chris Anelay. We all settled down for a long day in the front and even better the rain stopped.

We stayed together until about 25 miles to go when Rob put a hard turn in up a climb and split the group down to 5 with John just off the back. John put in a mega effort to get back on into the headwind. We now had 3 Deeside riders in the group of 6.

With about 15 miles left Geraint Thomas attacked very hard on a drag and I jumped across, we worked together to ride away from the group.

The rain started again and we were riding very hard, as we approached the climb on the run I could feel my legs cramping so I sat on all the way up the climb. Geraint was flying up the climb I had to ream myself to hold his wheel at which point I remember thinking “f’ing drag!” we got over the top and started the last 5 miles. My legs were cramping really bad now. As we started the sprint for the line I went past him easily and then every muscle in my legs went to pieces and he started coming back, in the end I lost it by about 2 inches.

The rest of the lads did really well and we placed 5 riders in the top 10. Just a massive disappointment I couldn’t win it.

1st Geraint Thomas - Cardiff JIF
2nd Andrew Martin - Deeside Olympic
3rd Chris Anelay - Triangle RT
4th Rob Partridge - Deeside Olympic
5th John Skates - Deeside Olympic
6th Guy Stevens - Abergavenny RC
7th Norman Hughes - Deeside Olympic
8th Ian Bendall - Bynea CC
9th Andrew Windsor - Deeside Olympic
10th Dale Appleby - VC St Raphael
11th Steve Lloyd - Deeside Olympic
12th James Shaw - Team Synergy
13th Mat Ackland - Bynea CC
14th Jeremy Rees - Swansea Wheelers
15th Aled Williams - Landovery CC
16th Gareth Pugh - Cwmcarn Paragon RC
17th Simon Oliver - Deeside Olympic
18th Chris Gould - Cardiff JIF
19th Darren Stone - Cardiff JIF
20th Marcus John - Pembrokeshire Velo
21st Kevin Eckersall - Abergavenny RC
22nd Mark Olding - Cardiff Ajax CC
23rd Huw Salway - Cwmcarn Paragon RC
24th Phil Matthews - Climb On Bikes
25th Gerald Williams - Swansea Wheelers
26th Peter Simon - Bynea CC
27th Robert Bignell - Abergavenny RC
28th Matt Cook - RAF CC
29th Craig Standage - Cardiff JIF
30th Chris Phillips - Halesowen CC
31st Steve Bradbrook - Deeside Olympic

Thanks to Andrew Martin for this report.

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