Junior Joe Rainey produced a fantastic ride when finishing 3^rd in the Seacroft Wheelers road race on Sunday at Selby.

Rainey in his first open road race sprinted to 3^rd place behind the breakaway pair of Tony Grassby (Peak RT) and winner Karl Downes (Active CP Cycles).

 

 

 

 

Held on a flat 6 mile circuit the 50 mile race was dominated by a race long break by Downes who having spent 2 laps alone in the lead was then  joined by Grassby and Ben Roberts (Bridlington CC). The trio never held more than a 45 seconds lead and with 3 laps remaining and the bunch closing in on the break Roberts was dropped which seemed to give Downes and Grassby a fresh impetus. With the lead starting to grow again the Thursday quartet of Rainey junior Jacob Trotter and seniors Mark Walker and Paul Campbell were all looking comfortable in the front bunch, however lady luck was not to shine on Trotter who punctured on the finishing straight with 1 lap to go and Walker and Campbell who were delayed in a last lap crash. Walker having to navigate his way out of a roadside ditch. Rainey launched a last gasp escape with Dan Kenna (Active CP Cycle) whom he outsprinted to take 3^rd place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rainey, Trotter and Walker head to Harrogate next weekend for the first in the series of the Yorkshire road race league.

 

Mark Walker has also kindly written a report about the race

The annual Seacroft Wheelers road race took place on Sunday 25^th March with Four Hull Thursday riders lining up for what turned out to be an eventful race to say the least. Jacob Trotter, Joe Rainey, Paul Campbell and (myself) Mark Walker all managed to get to the HQ in Wistow on time despite the clocks going forward and making an early start seem that bit earlier. The dense fog didn’t seem to prevent any riders turning up either as a 60 rider field rolled off to the start.

The start was the usual frantic fight for position as well as the inevitable chancers trying to breakaway from the gun. However after a lap or so things seemed to settle down. That was until Karl Downes made an attack on the 2^nd lap that at the time seemed a somewhat crazy move to go so early. But this is Karl Downes were talking about who has one of the best motors in the region and lap after lap he stayed clear of the bunch. He was eventually caught by Tony Grassby but the rest of the pack wasn’t to see them until the finish. The drama kicked in with just a couple of laps to go as attacks started to come from local riders John Askew, Paul Drop and myself with Paul Campbell getting in the mix but with almost 50 miles in the legs it was almost impossible to get away. It was at around this time that Hull Thursday rider Jacob Trotter came unstuck with a puncture.

Jacob hadn’t put a foot wrong all race and had positioned himself excellently with a top result seemingly on the cards. However if there was ever a good time to get a puncture this was it as the next lap wreaked havoc. Coming down the back straight with about 2 miles to go the fight for the front just got a little too frantic as it looked like a rider on the left hand side came down causing a domino effect that seemed to come across to the right. Paul Campbell was one of those who came down which ended up with me barrel rolling off him and into a muddy ditch (the print my ride photos help to explain the mess I ended up in). Tony Goundry who was still nursing injuries from a holiday crash also came down but of the 20 or so that fell I believe only one looked seriously injured. Still that’s one too many.

However in all the confusion young Joe Rainey shot away with a couple of other riders including the strong Dan Keena and managed to stay clear until the finish. Not only that but Joe managed to win the sprint for third topping off a fantastic performance in what I believe was his first open road race. Well Done Joe.

Despite the crashes and aching legs I feel we all had a good time and are now looking forward to the next race, which for some of us is only next weekend at Dirtwheels road race near Harrogate  where I’m sure we will have some more Hull Thursday success to report.

 

Mark Walker