The Wightlink-Wight Mountain Cycle Race Team riders have been competing on the mainland against some of the top riders in the South East over the past couple of weeks.
Kev Chant, Matt Allsopp, James Veal, Stuart Waite and Jerry Cooper returned to the Thruxton circuit on a cold, wet and windy Tuesday evening. Kev was hoping to keep up his winning streak and the other lads were hoping to improve on their performance from the previous week. Despite the adverse weather conditions, they all started off strong and were looking good in the bunch.
However, a serious crash in the 4th Cat race, which was held at the same time, had a huge impact on the racing and the field began to split up after 6 laps. Kev and Matt, in the E1/2 race, dug in but were unable to close the gap to some of the riders who had got away. Matt was the best placed WLWM rider, sprinting home to 9th place with Kev finishing in the bunch.
In the 3rd Cat race, James put in a few good attacks but was unable to make them stick. Again, some riders had managed to peel off from the bunch after the crash leaving the other riders the hard task of chasing them down. James, Stuart and Jerry finished strongly, Stuart winning the bunch sprint to take 6th place.
On Sunday, Kev and Matt travelled to the mainland again to compete in the Surrey League’s first road race of the season at Alfold.
The team mates had a terrific ride over the 50 mile course and after almost 2 hours of hard racing, Kev got away in a break for the last lap and a half and proved his class again by winning the sprint to the finish line to take the top spot. Matt came home close behind with the main bunch.
