East Lancs racing season begins

East Lancs Riders Sam Wilson in second and Sam Walley in fourth in the Peloton at Salt Ayre

After the winter break, the 2016 racing season has at last got underway for the East Lancs Road Club.

The first race of the year was at the Salt Ayre Circuit in Lancashire where the club had several junior riders stepping up to road racing for the first time.

In the fourth category race, Alex Wiseman, Paul Ashworth, Josh Decamps and Alex Trippier all started, but finished with mixed fortunes. Alex Wiseman and Paul Ashworth finished comfortably in the bunch but Josh retired with a broken chain and Alex Trippier was brought down by a fellow rider whilst well placed for the finishing sprint on the last lap.

In the third and fourth category race Sam Walley and Sam Wilson started along with Josh Decamps who had fixed his chain from the previous race. However, things went seriously wrong when after 20 minutes of racing with all the club’s riders doing well, there was a serious crash which required first aid for the rider involved and the race was abandoned.

The following day Ben Trippier rode the Clayton Grand Prix based around Bashall Eaves near Clitheroe. This 55 mile event is the season opener for many riders and is based on 15 laps of a four mile circuit. For the time of year the weather was perfect and it was a very fast race.

Many professional riders were in the field and the team from Pedal Heaven were the driving force throughout the race.

Ben Trippier was involved throughout until the ninth lap when a rider also crashed in front of him and the negotiations to clear the fallen rider resulted in him losing contact with the peloton, which was effectively the end of the race for him despite a good showing.

Last Saturday, the club featured six pairs of riders in the 25 mile Nova CC 2Up team time trial. The course was based on an undulating course between Macclesfield and Congleton.

The riders had to contend with a moderate northerly wind plus a hail storm but most teams were happy with their first performance of the year.

Andy Gorton/Phil Shore sixth fastest overall with 1:01:34hrs; Sam Walley/Alex Trippier fastest juniors with 1:05:22hrs; Alex Wiseman/Dave Ireland with 1:09:36; Jon Preston/George Preston with 1:16:37 and Josh Decamps/Lawrence Fairclough with 1:19:40hrs.

Sam Wilson and Ben Trippier both took part in the St Helen's CRC road races based around the Pimbo circuit on Sunday with steady performances to finish in the bunch.

The usual Saturday and Sunday Club Rides took place, despite the cold weather, with over thirty riders out on the roads over the weekend.

The only victim to the weather was the East Lancs junior coaching sessions, which had to be cancelled due to the circuit being under six inches of snow, but these will resume on Saturday as usual this week.