The latest round of the Velo Road Race series took place at Braithwell on Sunday 27^th July.

 The Witham Wheelers were again well represented with Carol Milne riding in Group 2, Dave Herd in Group 3, Dave Moulds, Crispin Bridges-Webb, Phil Atherton and Tony Mendham in Group 4, Phil Etches, Rob Johnson, Mick Egner and Martin Milne in Group 5 and Mark Kokocinski riding in Group 6.

  It was 10 laps of a short 3.5 mile circuit which had an uphill drag to the finish into a ‘lively’ wind. Some of early Groups had completed 2 or 3 laps before the faster Groups started due to the time handicaps so you needed to keep an eye on which lap Groups were on as the laps passed quickly. It certainly didn’t seem to take long before you were ploughing into the wind on the finishing section on each lap – part of the wearing down process! The section with the tailwind was very fast followed by a section with rougher roads through a wooded section and then back into the headwind.

 The Groups needed to work well together to try and hold off the chasing Groups and to catch those in front. Groups 1 & 2 came together in the later stages of the race and Group 4 was caught on the penultimate lap by Groups 5 &6. The pace was quick for Groups 4, 5 & 6 as riders tried to position themselves before going into the final headwind section to the finish. Groups 1 & 2, having been joined by a Group 3 rider stayed away and claimed the top places. Group 3 were caught on the uphill drag into the wind just before the finish which made for a messy disorganised finish for those groups.

I think most riders were just pleased to done the headwind section for the last time!

 Carol Milne was 4^th in her Group, Crispin Bridges-Webb was 2^nd in Group 4, Phil Etches was 1^st  and Group 5 followed by Martin Milne who was 2^nd.

Camera failure at the finish so full results haven’t been published yet!