Warren reports back from the Surrey League Easter 3 Day:
Myself, David Creeggan, Jamie Newall, Craig Wilson and special guest Martin Rutherford all lined up for the start of the 3 day on an ominous looking day. The game plan was to hold back as long as possible and light the fuse with 3 laps to go as historically Milland is generally won on the final quarter of the race. The weather played a big part one minute it was raining the next hail and sleet. A large group of 20 or so riders had formed at the front of the race with the gap at nearly 3 minutes it was time to panic, 4 laps to go and a tree had fallen across the finish blocking the road completely ( a lucky escape as apparently the leaders had missed this) consequently the race was finished the next time up the hill thus ensuring none of us were in contention. I managed to clip off the front of the group to gain a meagre 4 seconds (strange as it seemed more to me) ultimately it looked like the original plan may have worked as we were starting to bring the group back, never mind at least there are still 2 stages left! In the morning event Mark Gibbs did a good ride to finish inside the top ten as far as I know there were no major instances although they would have had the same conditions weather wise.
Video footage of the Stage 1 climb on YouTube
Day 2 and I had a call from Mark Gibbs in the morning to say his race had been cancelled due to ice on the circuit, the afternoon race still went ahead but was significantly shortened to a 1.5hr blast, not really ideal but at least we could race, Craig Wilson slipped into the first significant move of the day at around half distance I managed to get across and 8 of us kept the bunch at bay for just over two laps alas it was not to be the next move went and Dave Creeggan managed to get into this one, however he was promptly spat out the back which meant we had missed out again, 4 riders managed to hold the bunch off by 10 seconds I managed to unleash my famous sprint for 7th.
Day 3 and I for one was revved up as I personally like the Lingfield course and as we had done a total of just under 90 miles in two days the legs weren’t exactly tired. Driving down to the race all seemed okay with the weather however approaching Edenbridge there were ominous signs of snow at the sides of the road. On getting to the HQ we were told the race had to be cancelled due to the weather, the morning race had gone ahead apparently at times through blizzard like conditions, again Mark Gibbs did a great ride to get another top 10 result. All in all we were all rather disappointed at a wasted weekend and lack of proper racing but the only thing to blame was the weather, maybe some time this year we may get to race in shorts!
Gibbo adds:
Stage placings of 8th & 10th for 10th overall was the best I could do in
what turned out to be a weekend of aggressive racing with the field
being split apart on both stages by ex pro Ben Wilson (stage 2 was
cancelled). The weather was lovely apart from the snow, sleet, hail
storms and icy roads.
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