Club News - 15th/16th February 2003

Several Somerset Road Club riders joined 60 others to contest the first handicap road race of the season, at Whimple, near Exeter on the old A30 towards Honiton.

The pace was high from the start and the slight uphill road of around 2 miles long to the Hand and Pen crossroads had some riders in each group struggling to maintain contact with the rest of their group. Once out of touch there was no way back as, at the turn, the road dropped steadily back towards Exeter and the pace picked up to well over 35 mph.
In less than 9 miles the second group had caught up the first group which contained Somerset Road Club riders Mark Kurpyta, John Rawlings and newcomer veteran Martin Hunt.

Peter Wheddon (Clevedon and District Road Club) was able to sprint his way to the lap end prime – the first of 3 lap end primes that he won. By the time the second lap had been completed the third group, including Jason Coles of Somerset Road Club, had also got to the front and was driving the pace up even higher.
At the back of the race the scratch men were doing their utmost to bring back the 4th group that had started in front of them. With about 10 miles to go the joining of the last two groups was a signal for some of the top men, including local riders Greg Sandy & Mike Kiss, to try and bridge the gap to get to the front groups.

Six riders including Greg Sandy made steady progress to overhaul the front runners. With 5 miles to go they had less than a minute deficit and looked to have the situation under control.

With 3 slightly uphill miles to go the gap was down to 40 seconds and on the final straight all three main groups could be seen chasing hard. In the end it proved too much with the sprint being contested by the lesser-fancied men from the first three groups. Somerset Road Club riders were well placed in the front group and were all placed inside the first fifteen finishers. Andy Hoskins from Weston-super-Mare won the closely contested sprint at the end of this, the first Mid-Devon Cycling Club’s Springtime Pursuit.

Result