Willesden Road Race – Report

Yesterday’s Willesden Road races proved to be a great success with big fields signing up for both races.

The Cat 3/4 race had a strong green hue with five of the Squadra Verde’s finest lined up at the start. Our seasoned racers of Rich Cooper, John Williams, Peter Dixon and Lance Woodman were joined by new Willesden signing, Tom London ,in his first ever race. Our boys had a plan and did their best to make it work. Highlight of the day was the sight of Willesden team gloriously leading the peleton in the final stages of the race.

Lance metamorphosed from racer to roaming camera man and has posted a race video and a frank account his day on his web site at – http://tinyurl.com/mt839g. His sequel, featuring the E123 race, is scheduled to debut later this week.

In watching the race I was impressed by how comfortable the Squadra Vs were looking in the race. They handled themselves well and finished the ride well up amongst the wheels. Hats off to Tom London who was the first green back across the line. What a start to his racing career!

Next up was the Elite race, featuring an interesting strategy by Marcin Bialoblocki of the SportBeans-Wliler team. He went off the front in the first 30 minutes of the 90 minutes plus 5 lap race – surely madness! But no, he steadily built up a substantial lead of 35 seconds. His teams mates assisted by covering all the breaks from the peleton. In the dying minutes Marcin was fading, but he held on to win the race, with his loyal team mate crossing the line in second place.

Full results of both the John Walker and Dulcie Walker road races can be found here – http://bit.ly/ZLM4v

The only person whose worked rate exceeded Marcin’s was Jumbo James. In his role as chief organiser Jumbo was to be seen everywhere on a variety of hastily commandeered and inadequately sized bicycles. Legs turning at turbine speeds and Willesden jacket flapping in his slipstream, Jumbo gave 100% to make the race a success. Well done that man!

Miles Back
14 September 2009