It was hot. Hot enough for hard men to seek shade like schoolgirls. Hot enough to make Ice Cold Billy Mara sweat like a guilty man holding the evidence. Did I mention it was hot?
With Chicka’s promotion to B grade, many of his erstwhile riding companions decided to join him in a packed B grade bunch, with Dave Rubie too slow to realise what was going on and watching them ride away while he waited to C to start.
Mick Hoult generously set off as a rabbit for the hounds in A grade, but Pat McMillan in stunning form used his tri-dork skills to drop a zipping A grade at the bottom corner on the last lap and pounded them off his wheel, sweeping through for an easy victory from John Scott-Hamilton, who was waiting for a tow that never came. His sprint against the space captain was excellent but hollow, with Pat having sat up 100 metres from the line and coasting to victory.
The packed B grade started at a fairly leisurely pace until they came up to lap the C grade race, at which point the hammer came down and the new B graders were dropped, followed by Dave Jenner. Chris Jones rode to an impressive victory.
C grade was bolstered by the addition of some juniors although hampered by some haphazard turn taking. B grade overtaking provided an opportunity for a few C graders to try to make the jump to the B grade bunch (resulting in instant disqualification) but provided Jackie Weston with the perfect opportunity to take 4 metric tonnes of ill fitting Peugeot over the finish line in first place.
l’envie terrible, juste la cause de mon peugeot peut battre vélos en plastique!