To get a top ten place in your first race is just fantastic but for the club to have TWO riders in the top ten, in their first ever race, demonstrates how all those miles of training can pay off. Barry Gerhold cruised to 8th, Maurice Brennan 10th.
After ten fast and very close laps of Dunsfold, the last 500 metres were brutal...and harsh on the man of the race, Charl Jordaan, who led from the front, lap after lap. I went to the front to urge him to get out of the wind and let others take the toughest place but he wasn't budging and when the final push came he found himself boxed in and without the oomph needed to win...but he deserved to, he will obviously win soon! Barry played it very well, looking calm and in control as did Maurice, as if they'd raced all season. Olly Gin, also a first time racer, looked comfortable. Chris Stone did a great stint at the front but we couldn't quite get the train going that we had planned. Chris Batch was somewhere in the fray, I'm not sure where he finished, full results tomorrow. Steve Taylor stayed in the main peloton all the way around but a mishap saw Howard Dyson lose contact with the peloton and as we all know, once you're out in the wind, it's hard to get back but he did the full ten laps when most other people would have given up. Rupert came with us to cheer us on and take photos. Simon Deefholts also came all the way over, standing by with spare wheels, fortunately there were no punctures. A few strong Redhill riders were missing on this evening, next week let's make it a full house and get our tactics right for a record Redhill finish!! If you're interested in the stats, I recorded 30 miles at 23.6mph. If you're interested in racing, send me an email, Russell: foxbarn@aol.com
Photos are available at http://rupertracer.smugmug.com/Road-Racing/Surrey-League-Dunsfold-Park/…