2005 Race 3 - Avalanche Adventure - Sulby Leics |
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| The rain
gods smiled on us and Rockingham Forest Wheelers sorted out an excellant course
consisting of a 4WD quarry section, two tight singletrack wood sections and a
twisting Quad course. The fast start into the 4WD quarry section saw a huge mxiture of race lines as Matt Barrett - Websters/Specialized heads the field with Adi Scott -Numplumz.com hanging on for a close second. The two Elite racers pulled away to finish in that order untroubled. Matt putting in very fast 7 minute laps for the 2 mile course. Behind them Phil Hughes - Rugby Velo and Lloyd Bettles - Numplumz.com led the chase, along with the clear Junior winner Nicholas Jones - Team Milton Keynes. Lloyd station in 4th waiting to pounce untill the final lap, but then crashed in the tight wooded section and settled for 4th, conserving effort for a Gorrick Championship race on Sunday. Kristian Brown - Websters/Specialized rode for an untroubled 5th Rookie Paul Robertson Treads MBC put in an excellant ride coming home 7th in the Seniors in his first FNSS year. In The Veterans Jack Peterson Numplumz.com got what is becoming his trademark fast start just behind the leading senior riders and tried to use the wooded sections to pull a good gap on the first lap. Gary Hill - CATS MBC was not standing for that and settled into second and set after the leader, but just did not have the speed this week. Keith Sperry - Lutterworth CTC powered through after a poor start to take the lead from Jack, who held on for 4 laps. Vic Barnet got the tow up to the leaders to as an 8 man bunch of Seniors and Juniors worked together, Vic moving into 3rd from a fading Gary. jack got worried seeing Vic gaining and found something in reserve, and on the last lap pulled to within a bike length coming out of the final wood. Keith riding with 6th place Senior Mike Cowland - Ben Hayward Cycles just hung on for the win from Peterson with Barnett settling for a fine third. Lewis Harris Rugby Velo chased Jones hard for second and was fortunate that a mechanical 2 laps from the end didn't allow 3rd place Jason Hucklesby through. In the ladies Carrie Carruthers - CATS MBC again secured the win. And the Youths winner was Luke Marlow - Welland Valley CC. Phil Hughes holds onto the Senior series lead for now, as does Jack Peterson in the Vets. But its Matt Barrat and Keith Sperry with 2 wins each that are emerging as series favourites for 2005 |
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| ROUND3 Full results | |
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| Filed by:
Richard Banks, event organiser. 23.05.2005. This year's event was held at the Avalanche Adventure 4x4 off-road centre, adjacent to the airfield at Husbands Bosworth Leicestershire. The site has a variety of terrain, including gravel path, single-track through woodland, flat grassland with a course marked out for quad bikes, a short section of set-aside field, and a testing hilly section in an old gravel quarry, now used by 4x4 off-road vehicles. With the event scheduled for 50 mins. plus 1 lap, the action began from the start with Matt Barrett (Websters/Specialized) battling it out for the lead with Adi Scott (Numplumz.com). In close contention in 3rd spot was Phil Hughes (Rugby Velo). By the end of the lap the order was Barrett, Scott, Hughes, with a gap of approx 10 secs. between each, and the rest of the field beginning to stretch out behind. Halfway round lap 3 and Barrett was pulling away, the relentless pressure beginning to tell, the gap to 2nd placed Scott now over 20 seconds. This was the pattern for the rest of the race, Matt Barrett being so confident, he was braking late & getting the bike sideways leaving the gravel path before entering the woods at the far side of the circuit, -just like Valentino Rossi & colleagues in Moto GP. In the end Barrett won by a country mile, from Adi Scott, with Phil Hughes 30 secs behind in 3rd. The juniors were impressive, Nicholas Jones of Team Milton Keynes getting away to a good start from Lewis Harris (Rugby Velo) in 2nd, who finished the full distance on the same lap as the Race Winner Barrett. Even more impressive was the only contender in the youth category, Luke Marlow of Welland Valley CC who rode the full duration & finished just 1 lap behind the leader. -Some going! - Look out the old fogies, there's talent behind catching you up. Fastest lady was Carrie Carruthers of CATS MBC, whose only other contender was novice June Hicks of Leicester. The Vets event was strongly contested as always, with Keith Sperry of Lutterworth CTC eventually getting the better of Jack Peterson (Numplumz) with the incredible Vic Barnett showing the remainder you're not too young at 53+ years old. Weather for the day turned out to be dry after a rain shower earlier in the afternoon, which threatened to make the going heavy. However, due to the excellent drainage of the site, all was well for the start 3 hours later. With favourable comments from the riders, and a promise from the site manager Robin Sawyer that the course will be available next year (and at any time this year for that matter), the club looks set to return for more rounds in the FNSS. |
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