Event Three, Walkington Circuit.  60 Kilometres.  Club Hull & East Riding

You might forgive me for mentioning football and the World Cup. All that money invested in a game and I think it came as a relief to the millions of fans when England finally scored. I heard one commentator deriding the Swedes for taking three hours to score a goal but if you add in ‘injury’ time then it was about the same for the England team.

That same afternoon I watched a stage over the Albula Pass in the Tour of Switzerland.  I saw how strong Jan Ullrich was; that Rassmussen isn’t up to what he was last year, and how Kaldo Gil, a Spaniard from Pamplona -the home of Miguel Indurain , made a superb effort on the climb and take the stage and overall lead. These guys have to get up tomorrow morning and do it all again regardless of how hot or cold or wet or dry it is.

We also had a good race in the evening, the third stage in the East Riding Road Race League; five laps of the Walkington Circuit.

It might have been considered a balmy evening; I heard someone call it a ‘float’ one; it was going to be fast. The climb out of Walkington village towards Hunsley top is not steep but is strength sapping and I believed that the elite riders would have a real job on their hands tonight if the early groups got their fingers out.

Keeping to four groups the gaps were five minutes between one and two, and two and a half minutes between groups two and three and three and four.

 In the first group were Terry Parker, Mark Walker, Darren Sheard, Mel Blackford, James Wagstaff, Glenn Whitehouse, Mark Ollerenshaw, John Brearley, Mark McKeown, Mike Kilgour, Ellis Thackray, Phil Eden, Paul Cutsforth and John Hakner

Second group comprised Richard Robinson, Chris Burton, Martin Cockerill, Paul Joliffe, Karl Downes, Derek Palmer, Steve Macklin, Simon Wright, Scott Hamilton, Paul Purdy and Colin Sinclair.

Group three was Steve Guymer, Steve Marrows, Paul Noton, Stuart Axcell, Matthew Fenton, Dave Compston, Dave Shackleton, Nathan Wilson, Jeremy Watton, Luke Barber, Lewis Jackson and Mark Wordsworth.

And finally an even bigger and better scratch group made up of Alastair Kay,  Chris Daddy, Richard Moore, James Sampson, Mike Moss, Dan Keena, Gareth Hewitt, Dave Coulson, Richard Lambert, Kit Gilham, Erik Lakerveld and Steve Ward.

As someone having to sort out the finish order this is not my favourite course; but it is good to race around. My advice not to wait for groups behind is sound and is also based on the fact that I’d like to see some points go to the early groups. Nevertheless you have to work for it. The following lap times provide an interesting analysis.

Group one kept a steady pace for the first two laps, the primes on laps two and three would obviously go to them and they were both picked up, easily, by Mel Blackford. Group two obviously need a leader, they were caught far too early and maybe too many are watching each other.  Group three were going along fine. Having the firebell with them made a lot of difference and the winner should have come from this group. They had everybody caught with a lap to go and still a minute and a quarter advantage over the scratch group. However, the scratch group put in a superb effort that last lap, latched on only at the last corner and produced a really exciting finish, with Mark Wordsworth beating Ali Kay to the line by less than half a wheel.

Result: