Thursday 29th April, 2010 – Little Weighton Circuit. If you thought we’d hit a spell of decent weather then you’d have been very disappointed for the first event of the 2010 road race series, wet and dismal it was for the start, it didn’t stop raining for a moment and it became very dark. Nevertheless fifty one riders started and thirty-four finished, and they did make a race of it.

Jodie Brumhead and Terry Parker started together as group one and we gave them a five minute start. Group two comprised David Atkin, Benjamin Bell, Phil Bixby, Neil Dean, Phil Eden, Tony Goundry, Glen Harrison, Chris Holland, Graham Lonsdale, Mark Love, Martin Oliver, Simon Pickering, Steve Roebuck, Gary Trees, Adam Yates, Derek Palmer, Brad Palmer, Paul Noble, and Steve Cooper.

Next after two minutes was John Askew, Colin Baldwin, Chris Burton, Andrew Carroll, Mark Dicconson, Dean Fulstow, Steve Johnson, Gary Knowles, Steve Macklin, Adam Oliver, Stephen Swales, Paul Waddington, Steven Waterall, Lee Watson, Tim White, Mark Walker, Rob Brown, Craig Medcalf, Rob Busby, Paul Lynas, and Garry Fulstow

Group 4 set off a minute and half later and they were Tom Atkinson, Mel Blackford, David Brearley, John Brearley, Martin Cockerill, Matthew Enticknap, Paul Hickman, and Jason Young. The scratch group, composed of Matthew Fenton , Peter Fielding-Smith, Steven Guymer, Adam Hardy, Richard Moore, Marloe Rodman, Nathan Wilson and Adam Duggleby, set of a further one and half minutes behind.

Jodie and Terry came round in 22:05 , and group two came back in 19:23 , just about halving the advantage of the first two. Group three came round in 18:46 , group four in 18:10 and the scratch group in 17:56 ; quite clear that all were going to get together. Groups 2 to 5 came round the second lap respectively in 19:35 , 19:07 , 18:33 and 17:41 , not quite together but only two minutes between front and back.

As expected almost all were together at the end of lap three, but not quite. Seven riders had detatched themselves off the front with a handful of seconds advantage and it looked all over as this group contained just about all of the favourites. They were Adam Duggleby, Steve Guymer, Marloe Rodman, Richard Moore, Matthew Fenton , Lee Watson and Steve Johnson.

Around the back Richard Moore broke away but was caught just coming into Little Weighton. I was taking bets between Marloe, Adam and Steve but Matthew finished magnificently on his own, with a good margin between him and Adam, and Marloe had unfortunately punctured. But there was scarcely time to breathe and the rest of the field came hard on their heels, fortunately spread enough for the judges, even in the very dim light. I did see one rider come in at the finish with his lights on. It was a good race and one rider was heard to say he enjoyed it, perhaps that was just a cynicism shrouded in sarcasm. Hopefully the weather will be better for the next event in two weeks time.