Harry Ferguson Road Race – The Final Road Race of the season

by Rich · August 14, 2014

Before I start this report I have an announcement to make:

Due to circumstances beyond anyones control Friday Nights XC Club Race is Cancelled

Here ends the announcement.

Now back to the Harry Ferguson Road Race. Although no one was informed Martin G escaped for an unsanctioned holiday it was left to Lisa to take the lead and run the show. It is not easy running these club races and takes quite some effort and organisation to make it look under control. I think this is a great opportunity to thank Lisa for her sterling work. This week we put a shout out for marshals and thankfully several club members stepped up to the plate with Trevor W organising where each marshal should be used.

With all this planning what could trip the organisers up but a bit of hedge trimming to throw a spanner in the works. Thankfully after a bit of sweeping from Deek and Trevor the course was inspected and decided it was safe to ride through.

Finally we managed to get started and there was the usual complaints about people being in the group lower than they should be. The handicap fairy was at his work with a few amendments.

The good news was that group 3 managed to stay away with group 4 unable to eat into the time difference quick enough. Scratch caught group 4 on the last lap but couldn’t make the bridge to the lead group on the road. That left a tasty group racing for the finish line. Matthew A attacked on raffertys hill
and held them off right up til the last 10 yards when Matthew G managed to get to him and bury the head into the stem til the line. With Matthew A running out of steam fast, Matthew G had the sprint on and somehow kept it going head down.

The next group was lead in by Ronnie S and Gavin M as the rest followed in debating what could of been. Graham Beckett was going so well that he decided to ditch the go pro into the verge – I believe its all about marginal gains.

It was a great night of racing and delighted no one got a puncture. It was only made safe by some excellent marshalling around the course and I cannot emphasise enough the need for marshals as without them there would be no race.