Wager's Week

Hillingdon Circuits
Welcome to the Tony Gibb show! If you have not riden here then you should at least try it once. E123 race over 35 laps of the Hillingdon circuit. As usual the large field of around 60 riders rolled off the start line and straight into action. Immediatly found myself in a group of 15 riders including Tony Gibb and Colin Roshier. We managed to pull clear for around 5 laps before some of the group just sat up and the organisation went to bits - this allowed the bunch to quickly close in - as soon as they tacked on the back Tony Gibb and Colin Roshier attacked with no one able to chase on - that was the last time we saw them. Over the remainder of the race AW and Python racing team all worked hard to catch the lead duo - another group of 5 escaped including Jerome Walters - Sigma, Nigel Carpenter-Norwood Paragon, Tom Smith - AW, Nigel Williams - Python and Paul Crook - Beyond MTB - these guys managng to also stay clear to the end.

After a number of failed attempts to get moves away I was resigning myself to the ever dangerous bunch sprint - with 60% of the field sitting on all race they appear at this stage of the race to fight out the remaining few points and it's not a pretty site! 5 laps to go and some strong pulls on the front and we get a group of 10 away. There then followed some serious verbal encouragment from me :) at which point some of the group realised what work is and started pulling as well. Final lap and they all decide to watch each other until the final corner but I was just not game for a sprint and rolled over the line in a rather frustrating 18th position

Eelmore - CycleKingdom Round #12
With Portsmouth circuits finished for the season while they replace the track a visit to home turf was on the cards this week. Respect was shown for the passing of Chas Messenger before the evenings events got started. As expected the E12 race was full on from the gun with attacks coming from all the main teams. Nothing managed to stay clear for more than a few laps as all the top riders marked each other out. It looked possible it might hold together for another bunch sprint.

10 minutes and 5 laps to go and finally a group was away and it included some super strong riders - Hoy and Elverson from the ever consistent Felt Racing, Anders and Mr 'Power' Pickup, Lewis Atkins from Agisko, Martin Smith, AW Cycles and me Wager junior, the lone VC meudon. We got organised and started to roll through pretty well initially pulling clear of the bunch.

3 laps to go and the bunch was closing in with some strong riding from a handful of riders, some of which had riders in the break......you know who you are!!!.... it was finally closed and the stage set for a bunch sprint. Aware of this Paul Pickup and Martin Smith clipped away and maintained a 10 second lead all the way to the line with Martin taking the sprint.

The rest of us - Bunch sprint! Usual mayhem into the bottom corner and I was soon at the back of the bunch stuck in the 11 sprocket. Trying to get that gear going up the straight I was thankful Craig had lengthened the finish and managed to pull passed most of the bunch in the final 20 meters Zipp 808's letting them know I was approaching to a reasonable 8th place.

As it turned out the top 8 were pretty much the same as the group away with the exception of Tom Smith sneaking into 7th spot!

There is no 'I' in 'Team' :)

Check Nick Onslows video of the finish on facebook.