Moore Gibbs (updated)

POST UPDATED - scroll down for the race report ....

Scanning through the foto galleries of the Central Divs I spotted that familiar Meudon jersey, so dug a bit deeper into the results to find that prolific points scorer Bob Moore had sneaked out of region to ride the supporting 3rds race with Mark Gibbs for support.

Not sure what happened in the race yet, but Bob finished a fine 3rd with Mark backing up in 8th place.

I thought both must be perilously close to their 2nd Cat licences by now, so checked the BC rankings and sure enough Mr Gibbs sits proudly at the top of the South East 3rd Cat rankings with 39 points

At last Bob's comprehensive race report ....
--------------------------------------------

Carry On Bike Racing, 3/4cat support race to Central Divs, supported by Gibbo, Simon (no 10), Mike Lancaster and me, (Bob)(of Moore fame)
This race had everything, mystery route, headwinds, tailwinds, parked cars and crashes (there's a clue).

It went ballistic from the race HQ, the warmed up riders chasing the Lead Car at 27mph in the neutrallised zone..... I'm glad real racing is not as hard, it was only when we ended up negotiating traffic lights in Leighton Buzzard and coming to a stop in the High Street that the Lead Car realised something was adrift. After an 80 rider 'U' turn we headed back to the race course and that's where the real fun began
Having started 10 minutes behind the real Divs race we should have been well out of the E123's way, but because of our mystery trip to Leighton Buzzard we were now just in front of the main race.

After about 3 miles of racing the commisaire stopped us at the side of the road to wait for the main race to come thru'. I got a glimpse of Pete Wager at full flight in the bunch with Plowmen Craven on the front, those guys looked pretty quick as they ripped past us spuddos waiting at the roadside.
(Pete finished in the bunch after 80 miles at 26mph, a really good ride in that company.)

When we eventually got started again I could hardly be less enthusiastic about racing. However the race bowled along OK and Gibbo was good enough to tell me where he was going to jump for the finish line and if I wanted to be on his wheel that would be OK!
A couple of riders attempted to get away but that ended when the bunch collectively,
didn't exactly chase, but just somehow caught them up again.
Mike Lancaster looked pretty lively as he romped through the hilltop finish line on lap 3 stretching out the field and I really thought that he would have a good result on the day.
However on lap 4 with about 8 miles to go the red parked car which had been there all the race claimed a victim when a guy ploughed into the back of it bringing down 7 other riders including Mike. Mike couldn't get untangled and his race was over.

I was lucky enough to be level with this incident so not held up, but both Gibbo and Simon got stopped: Gibbo chased and got back on but Simon couldn't bridge the gap, finishing just off the bunch.

Seeing Gibbo with about 2 miles to go making his way towards the front I was unaware that he had had to chase to get there.

Good to his word he jumped from about 400 metres and shot up the outside with me on his wheel. The headwind and the chase took it's toll on him leaving me to get 3rd about a length down on the winner and Gibbo claiming 8th on the day.