22 riders fronted for this RROTY round 4, and despite the cold temperatures, conditions were excellent for some hard racing. The parcours would provide the perfect antidote for the cold, with 2 laps of the hilly Long Swamp course to warm the cockles!

With the handicaps fine-tuned, Jacqui and new rider Adam Edwards started the event as the GO riders, and in a tough start to club racing Jacqui showed Adam a clean pair of heels motoring down Dump Hill. Next off at 2:20mins was the pair of Pete Creagan and Mark Conroy who also went solo early, although Mark did hang on for a bit longer.

On 6:30mins, the trio of Dene, Richard Wilko and Rob Tindale set off, a minute ahead of another trio comprising Swanny, in-form Chris Belson, and Rod Christie, who in turn were followed by Kirky & Clint Bourke a further 45 secs behind. The small gaps motivated everyone and a group of eight had formed by the 15km mark taking back more than half the time of the first two pairs, and putting this group of riders in the box seat for the second half of the race.

At 10:30, another pair set off and being TT specialists the pattern of solo efforts continued, as John Scott-Hamilton dropped Phil Thomas so they could both tune their TT form as we build towards the Masters TT season. The Block group were 2 mins further back at 12:30, and it was a super-strong group with Paul “Hammy” Williams, last years RROTY champ Pat Ferris, Holly Harris, birthday boy Mick Hoult, Shaun Brennan, and another club newbie Jeremy McCann – although in this case Jeremy is far from a race newbie. As Block charged down Dump Hill, the final Scratch pair of Brent and Toby had to make up 45 secs as they hit the road, and they would need to catch Block early to have a chance.

Jacqui was still soloing at the 15k turn on 30:30, although Captain Creagan was just 45 secs behind and quickly caught her up, giving the lead pair a chance of taking the win. Mark and Adam made the turn, still ahead of the chasing mid-pakc octet who turned on 33:45. Block had lost Pat with a flat but gained the Eagle and turned on 35:45, still 35 secs ahead of the two Scratchies. Phil brought up the rear having settled into a TT training ride.

At the final turn, PC and Jacqui had a slim lead of 45 secs ahead of the middle groups turning on 45min flat, followed at 46:05 by Block who had by now had gained time on the Scratchies (47:10) on this outward leg of the course – and as usual it was all going to happen on the final ascents of Nymboida and Dump.

Setting a furious pace on the run for home, Block had caught & dropped all the riders ahead of them by the foot of Dump Hill, and they were left to race each other for the prize. Within sight of the finish, Jeremy stood up and sprinted to a close victory over Shaun, Holly and Hammy. The final RROTY points were taken by Houlty, with Johnny just missing out. Clint and Rod were the first survivors of the rest of the bunch, and the Scratch pair crossed the line conceding that today’s race was a tough day at the office.

Thanks to Swanny for the signs, Col for running the race, and Wilf for the race report. Please note that the GoPro was a no-show so some of the finish times outside the top 5 have been estimated based on Strava data,
Next week we kick off our TT season!

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