Local rider Peter Cocker has recently ridden 2 of the top single one-day races in the country for his Essex based team Richardsons Cycles. The 125 mile Cicle Classic has become a real classic and is held on the roads and farm tracks between Oakham and Melton featuring all the top UK teams plus several overseas teams. This was Peters longest race to date and he rode well, holding his position in the front group as it whittled down to about 30 riders with 20 km to go, when the distance finally told and he dropped off to lose many minutes on the run in but got some reward with the Lanterne Rouge prize for the last rider to finish, two nice bottles of wine.

The race was won by Colin Joyce from the American UHC Rally team

2 weeks later it was the Lincoln GP, now in its 65^th year as part of the UKs Premier calendar of races, this was 105 miles over 13 laps taking in the narrow Steep cobbled climb upto to the castle square every lap, which with 150 riders is a challenge in its own right. With the hard miles from Melton in his legs Peter rode a confident race, leading the bunch up the hill on the first lap to stay out of trouble as a big crash eliminated a good few riders early on. With 2 laps to go there were about 60 riders left in contention and with the pressure on at the front another 20 were dropped. Heading into the last lap the lead group split again and Peter was left in the chasing group just unable to bridge back to the front group of 20 riders who contested the final charge up the hill won by Jake Stewart (Canyon dhb) from World Cyclo-Cross champion Tom Pidcock (Team Wiggins). Peter still finished strongly to finish in 34^th 2.21 down on the winner. His best result yet competing at national level, where many of the competitors are riding full-time and its difficult for riders like Peter who work full-time to compete..