Chris Helwig
06-13-2006, 10:41 PM
A great night for racing with perfect temperature and weather. A fairly big crowd of about 40 riders came out to contest the Exeter Road Crit.
The first few laps were at a pretty fast clip courtesy of Julio and Charlie. Craig Browne was active early on as was Charlie as usual. Charlie went up the road solo and after a few laps was joined by Craig Browne. The two established a decent gap of around 15-20 seconds but were mostly in sight of the bunch. Behind it was clear Westhaven was not going to help with the chase. The bunch kept them close with some good chasing by Kees Lowes, Tony, Chris, Matt and a few other riders. Verly slowly they started to come back with Julio jumping across but soon everything was back together. A few other moves went up the road as the fast pace was seeing some riders come unglued. Graydon went off the front on a bold solo move and stayed away for about 5 laps. Craig Browne helped bring it back for what looked like the inevitable bunch sprint. A move went off the front with 4 rides including Charlie that looked dangerous, but was brought back mostly by Matt Townsend. It was all together and the pace in the last 10 laps was pretty full on. My view was from the back of the bunch as I has missed 6 or 7 laps with a broken stem bolt, but it looked super hard at the front. With two laps to go guys were imploding and going backwards fast. The pace as we got the bell was quick with most of the heavy hitters near the front. On the backside Graydon attacked with only 3 riders going with him. Everyone else hesitated as Graydon led it through the final corner. It was Graydon taking the win with Joe Torchia taking an impressive 2nd, Julio in 3rd, ?? 4th and Charlie 5th.
My E load stars are:
Graydon - Strong as usual and gets the win.
Charlie - In the most breaks and strong as usual.
Craig Browne - Getting stronger every week and in the break with Charlie
Joe Torchia - 2nd in the sprint
Matt Townsend - Did some critical chasing
Kees Lowes - Always a factor
The first few laps were at a pretty fast clip courtesy of Julio and Charlie. Craig Browne was active early on as was Charlie as usual. Charlie went up the road solo and after a few laps was joined by Craig Browne. The two established a decent gap of around 15-20 seconds but were mostly in sight of the bunch. Behind it was clear Westhaven was not going to help with the chase. The bunch kept them close with some good chasing by Kees Lowes, Tony, Chris, Matt and a few other riders. Verly slowly they started to come back with Julio jumping across but soon everything was back together. A few other moves went up the road as the fast pace was seeing some riders come unglued. Graydon went off the front on a bold solo move and stayed away for about 5 laps. Craig Browne helped bring it back for what looked like the inevitable bunch sprint. A move went off the front with 4 rides including Charlie that looked dangerous, but was brought back mostly by Matt Townsend. It was all together and the pace in the last 10 laps was pretty full on. My view was from the back of the bunch as I has missed 6 or 7 laps with a broken stem bolt, but it looked super hard at the front. With two laps to go guys were imploding and going backwards fast. The pace as we got the bell was quick with most of the heavy hitters near the front. On the backside Graydon attacked with only 3 riders going with him. Everyone else hesitated as Graydon led it through the final corner. It was Graydon taking the win with Joe Torchia taking an impressive 2nd, Julio in 3rd, ?? 4th and Charlie 5th.
My E load stars are:
Graydon - Strong as usual and gets the win.
Charlie - In the most breaks and strong as usual.
Craig Browne - Getting stronger every week and in the break with Charlie
Joe Torchia - 2nd in the sprint
Matt Townsend - Did some critical chasing
Kees Lowes - Always a factor