The first race report of the season has been sent in by Committee Member, Dean Cummings from his first road race of the season. At the end of March Dean made a familiar trip to Pinvin in Worcestershire for the LVRC Pinvin Road Race, a 48 mile race consisting of 6 laps of 8 miles on the rolling country roads of the English county. The race set of at a quick pace and two riders soon established a gap of 30 or 40 seconds. The 30 plus riders in the peleton began to work together, led largely by eight riders, including retired police officer Dean, riding through and off to close the gap.
On the 3rd lap the gap was closed and for a short time the race was together. Very soon, however, 3 riders attacked and held a 5 second gap, this group increased to 7 on lap 4 with the bunch chasing hard. Dean worked with four others to pull the main group along and keep the gap at 15 seconds. This hard work soon took its toll and by the end of lap 5 the chasing group became a little ragged and the breakaway extended their lead..
With the last lap looming the chasing group were held up by a tractor, and by the time they reorganised the momentum had been lost. The 7 breakaway riders split on the last lap and the race was won by Cardiff’s Courtney Rowe, the other leaders crossed a few seconds later followed by the main bunch.
Dean was very pleased with his efforts, feeling that this was his strongest performance in the first race of the season. He had raced for a little over 2 hours and averaged 24mph. He was probably helped by the cool bright conditions, an improvement upon his cold and wet winter training rides. Dean now looks forward to his next trip up to the Midlands with real confidence, to compete in the Enville RR in the middle of May.
