A significant westerly had been developing throughout the morning on Dangarsleigh, and by the scheduled start of Saturday’s handicap it was clear there would be some serious crosswinds to contend with for the 26 riders tackling the 40K course.
Despite some useful group sizes, the outward leg still saw some splits in the order. Bryn Griffiths was back in town and riding well, turning with a gap on his other companions who were battling with the conditions some 30s in arrears. Others found just getting off the start line challenging, Cookie and Pat Ferris missed their allotted 15m time, resulting in a hard chase and an additional 45s handicap on Swanny and Jason which they were unable to reel in.
Lachie and Alex Thomas did well to make contact with the bunch ahead, combining with PC and Hooper. Behind them, from around 40s, a whole series of small groups had formed and were battling over the rolling countryside. The Keglegs trio was closing in, followed by Swanny and Jason who had done well to survive alone to this point, but just 21s behind was an ominously growing bunch. This started to form when the Scratch pair of Dave Munday and Mick Hoult caught Block just before Black Lane at around 11km distance. They’d been given a 45s handicap on the group ahead and from then on, the pace was hard all the way to the turn.
Chris Stace kindly took to the gravel to let the Scratch group through and managed to stay with them briefly after a friendly wave to Andy Robb who was doing a great job of manning the turn. Cookie didn’t make it to see Andy, presumably turning early as a result of the timing mishap. Bill performed a cheeky short turn, just within camera range, but was shown leniency from the commissaire who couldn’t recall any rules to prohibit this, and Mitchell Jones appeared to have some kind of mishap at around 15km but confirmed he was OK as Scratch whistled by.
Predictably, the return leg involved Scratch catching each of the smaller echelon’d groups ahead, predominantly on the climb out of Salisbury Waters. Dave Munday had already tried a few solid hits over Mihi but decided to shake off the passengers with a hard charge as they neared the top. This almost worked against him as he reduced the bunch from about eight to just three but it seemed that even if he was solo at that point it probably wouldn’t have troubled him.
Tom Simmonds gamely bridged across having lost the last wheel of the trio but his time was limited and as more hard-hitting came, he was cut adrift once more. While there were a few interesting chases and efforts back down the road, ultimately it was a question of how big a gap the leaders could build.
Houlty, Hammy and Dave Munday were certainly not easing up and with around 2km to go the hits resumed. Hammy had coped brilliantly with the conditions to this point but as the two Scratch riders traded blows, he fell out of contention and into the role of spectator. Munday hit hard over the final crest but Houlty countered well and found himself in second wheel, perfectly placed to execute a well-timed effort that saw him take the win by a couple of seconds, with Hammy just 9s further back. Almost two minutes later, Phil Thomas outsprinted Tom for fourth who deservedly claimed the last of the RROTY bonus points.
Congratulations Mick Hoult and Dave Munday for a strong and well-earned victory and well done also to Paul Williams for an impressive ride out of Block. Thanks to Andy Robb for being on sign duty and running a safe race in testing conditions which everyone handled safely and sensibly.
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