Crits Rd 3, Evening 10s Rd 8 and racing round-up
The third and final round of Lewes Wanderers’ Crit Race series took place on the hot sunny evening of Thursday 16th June with 39 budding riders signed on to race, although only 38 saw the drop of the flag as one punctured during the roll-out.
Pre-race leader of Prime Sprint competition Steve Kane (Team TMC - Strada Wheels) secured victory in that competition and took the lead in the overall when on the second of the five laps he narrowly won the first Prime Sprint of the night from Jan Grosicki (Sussex Revolution Velo Club) and Hamish Reilly (Thanet RC).
Pre-event overall series leader Benjamin Dewey (SRVC) reduced Kane’s lead to just two points by taking second place in the sprint on lap three ahead of Reilly, but they were both well beaten to the line by Lewes Wanderer Joe Benians racing for Southborough & District Wheelers.
A group got away shortly afterwards and they contested the final Prime sprint between them with Morgan Rhodes beating Matt Smith (TMC) and Jon Mitchell (Brighton Mitre CC). That trio were still away on the final lap along with Mitchell’s team-mate Francis Schofield and Morgan West (Folkestone Velo) who had a shot at the series victory if he could win the final sprint.
Richard Burchett by Andy Brown
With a raging peloton bearing down on them the quintet just stayed away, but it was not to be for West as Brighton Mitre’s numerical advantage was decisive in Mitchell taking a clear win with Schofield pipping West for second. West could still have triumphed, but Steve Kane led the pack over the line a few seconds later to clinch both competitions and 12th placed Ben Dewey did just enough to take second overall.
Round 1 victor Tom Moss (S&DW) crossed the line in 9th to take 5th overall. His clubmate Joe Benians was 16th overall having passed the chequered flag in 15th place just ahead of Richard Burchett.
On Saturday 18th June Sally Turner (trainSharp) proved fastest of the twenty-two female entrants as she completed the Hemel Hempstead CC 10-mile event in a blistering time of 20 minutes and 45 seconds.
On the same day Kate Thomas took a massive 51 seconds off her personal best for 10-miles as she completed the Horsham Cycling event distance in 22 minutes and 57 seconds to prove fastest female and finish 8th of 21 overall.
Kate was victorious again the following night as Lewes Wanderers hosted Round 8 of their Evening 10s. Her time of 23:59 proved too good for runner-up Mike Hannay (24:32) and third place Darren Haynes (24:44). Fourth placed Joe Benians (24:55) may well have claimed victory had he not arrived at the start three minutes after his allocated slot.
Fifth overall and narrow victor of the road-bike category was Neil Edwards (24:56), just ahead of Tom Baker (24:59). Grahams Knowles (25:45) and Faultless (26:28) took 7th and 8th ahead of Jamie Goldstein (27:08); Peter Baker (28:29); Paul Hanratty (28:34); Dave Beale (29:00) and Adrian Hills (33:16).
Gina Boakes and Peter Baker were once more down at Preston Park outdoor velodrome on Wednesday 22nd June for Round 10 of the Sussex Cycle Racing League Track League. Gina posted the 6th fastest time in the 1-lap sprint qualifier and got as far as the quarter finals while Peter concentrated on the distance races. He placed 12th of 21 in the 8-lap Scratch Race; 19th in the 3-lap Dash and 21st in the 6-lap “Win and Out”. In the final 8-lap Points Race Peter was 6th to Gina’s 7th.
