Leamington Preseason Race 3

after the previous round at Leamington I was hoping for something more successful at the next round, and as per usual it never happened.

the day started with me waking up late because I had been out on the beers the night before and woken up late but luckily my travelling companion Mick Ridgeway was also late. and instead of rushing of to make up for lost time we decided to have some breakfast. now that sounds like we are being confident but being as lucky as I am this proved to bite us in the arse as we realised the battery in the car had died we had to spend 15 minutes trying to push the car up to speed to bump start it. at last we were of about an hour later than first hoped. the next mistake I maid was when we reached Leamington I stopped outside tesco to get a sandwich and turned the car engine of completely forgetting that the battery was dead. facing uphill on a thin busy street in a no parking bit is not the greatest place to be but to the rescue mr webb. we saw a guy on the opposite side of the road in a pair of royal shorts and took a guess that he was racing which he was. we soon realised after he started towing us that he had never towed any one before and why I never thought to jump start it while moving I will never no which then ended up costing me a tow rope as he tried to pull away to fast going up a hill.

on the racing front it was a welcome site to see mr 4x him self Chris Roberts with his new random air ram gate in action which he will be using for the nps 4x.so after 20 minutes of buggering around with my bike I went off to play. I was riding quite well and there were quite a few other people riding well to. Mick Ridgeway, pat cambell jenner and tom knight. I soon realised after a short while that my back wheel which was slightly knackered was now completely knackered as on every pedal stroke and in every corner the back wheel would rub against the chain stay which made pedalling a tad harder and made me sound like I was riding a moped and pulling a lead weight. but thankfully my new wheels are on their way. woo hoo. racing started and it was pat cambell how was showing that he had more power out of the gate and fair play to him for making the jump from junior to elite in the nps. for me the racing was going average but I was loving the new gate. unfortunaly I got beaten in a run of for the a final by a 15 year old tom knight but after leading the into the final turn I left a nice big gap open for him. I might of well had a sign saying "please pass hear". but at least my b final went well as I managed to win that one. in the main final Mick unclipped out of the gate which left an easy ride for pat cambell to take the win followed by tom night and alister keene.

highlight of the day was the 20x pumprace. I say it was the highlight because I won that one. or was my highlight entering my first mega avalanche race. yipee

I would like to say a big thank you to the guys a Warwick uni for organising the series and to Chris Roberts for bringing the new gate.

to check out some pictures of the days racing check out this website.

British Cycling