Goodwood Reports

From a bunch of races at Goodwood yesterday we have several views of the action in the different events

4ths - Nick Upshall
Had an interesting race....80 strong 4th CAT race..is their any chance of a separate 4th CAT novice race in that circumstance? Lots of first timers meant an interesting a twitchy bunch, I was doing my usual sheltering from the wind and twice took to the grass, cyclocross style. Tried a break (as planned) at lap 5, gunned it, took the lead for half a lap then blew totally to just about hang onto the back of the bunch for two laps recovery. Then tried my second big effort with 4 to go up the slight rise at the back of the circuit...I lasted about 500 metres with zero support....blew again. Sat in then to recover for the sprint. With half a lap to go I was moving up aiming for a big dig, when major 4th CAt wobbles all around me (me included) took me and a few others to the grass with 400 to go....got back on the circuit at the back to see a pile up in front of me. So, packed at that point to help the injured rider on the deck. He was well beaten up, fortunately the chap who took to the grass with me was a police medic and took full control of the situation (on-track first aiders were about as qualified as me). He lived anyway. So, all in all another tall story of woe ending in another DNF! Bring on 2010.

3rds - Colin Addison
Confusion and lack of ambition defined the 3rds Race at Goodwood on Sunday. Nobody seemed to know what time the race would start and the lap board remained on "3 to go" for 3 consecutive laps towards the end, but far worse was the current 3rd Cat trend of urgently chasing down any semblance of a break. Frustrated was how VCM's participants of Addison, John Aldridge, Andy Grant, Deano and Jim Orr all felt whilst strong riders of other clubs consistently sat on the front dragging the bunch back to togetherness without ever chancing a spell off the front themselves. Credit to triers like Graham Wood who was also relentless in trying to get away. The end result was a fast 2 hours followed by the inevitable hairy sprint ( Oh yeah we had grass riders too, including one who tried to rejoin across the chicane rumble strip). Bring on some hills and crosswinds!

from John Alderman
About 3/4's of the way down the back straight a swarm of riders, most of whom I'd not seen the whole race, appeared & it just got too silly for me to want to get involved.
It is always difficult to get away at Goodwood & even more so when windy but my feeling is it was a typically frustrating 3rd Cat race where no one wanted to give it a go & as usual it turned in to a final lap thrash for the line by those who'd sat in for 2 hours on a Sunday bunch ride. At least we Meudon boys tried to ignite it a few times along the way.

E/1/2 - Ben Macland
Murder for me. Small field full of Es and 1s, attack, attack, attack, close a gap, then someone attacks over the top and I'm group three, 6 of us 14 laps to go, through and off till the end. My legs hurt today, really hurt, not normal. Ken Prince was out the back early, Craig Wilson(12ish) managed to get in the second group with Pete Wager (going strong, 8thish) and Keith Jarrett was with me. Dave Creeggan was in the break and just blew and stopped. A painful day out.

Ken enjoys the downhill section at Goodwood!



Keith not quite so pleased with affairs