Clearly, Web Master Mike’s racing season finishes in July, if the announcement accompanying the arrival of the June and July’s “Through and Off” are anything to go by. For the record he said “ Mark Johnson…….has added the final two accounts from last season's road racing”. Well losing one web master could be an accident but losing 2 would look like bullying. So I am not going to comment on the competency of Web Master Mike (…. for the time being).

At last, some of the road racers managed to have some success during August. Top of the pile was Carl “Sluggish” Saint with a second spot in the Brigante RR (LVRC) at Boroughbridge. In fact he spent most of the race marking riders trying to chase down the Hammer, who had managed to get himself off the front, up the road and out of sight. Such team work is a rarity for YRC road racers. We haven’t quite mastered the art of team tactics and as a consequence tend to chase down of our own club mates when they manage to escape. Unfortunately, the Hammer’s escape took place in the first few miles of a 50 mile race, so the likelihood of him surviving to the end were nil. When he was reeled in at the half way point, the proper attacks started and this enable Sluggish to slip away from the pack to secure a well deserved second spot. It was nice to see a memorable comeback from Dave ‘me back hurts’ Goodall (Airedale Olympic) who took first spot in the B race. Let’s get him signed up with the Yorkies

In August the Hippo managed to climb to the dizzy heights of 5th in Golden Oldies RR (LVRC) in Congleton – the name says it all! Rather than having a sedate spin around the circuit the Hippo was forced (bullied) to work mid race when the pack decided to chase down a break of 4 riders with a two minute gap. Having chased for over 40 mile, the escapes were in spitting distance and there was only 8 or so miles to go. Typically, however, the chasing pack began to argue amongst themselves leaving the escapees to mop up the podium spots uncontested. The Hippo also bagged a 5th spot at the Newburn crits (TLI). This is a 40 lap points race ran on an 1 mile circuit at an industrial estate in Newcastle upon Tyne. With primes every 5 laps (points for the first four over the line), the racing was fast and furious with attacks shooting off with every blink of the eye.

Other uneventful races included the Hammer being lapped and then told to ‘retire’ by the commisaire at the Hartlepool Carnival RR (BC). The Hippo was dropped on lap 2 of 7 in the
Team Velo Club Nottingham RR (LVRC) having rode himself in to a ditch at a corner. The Hammer managed to finish in the bunch. The Hippo finished in the bunch in the Sutton CC criterium (BC) at the Lee Valley circuit and in the Seacroft Wheelers RR (BC) on the pan flat Bishopwood course. The Hippo did emerge from the pack in the last kilometre of the Seacroft RR but was quickly swamped by the galloping pack with 500 meters to go. Appeals were lodged post race as riders complained at having to ride an extra 20 meters to get around the Hippo’s wide girth.

And so August came and August went, and all that remained was the last month of the 2005 road racing season. Next months instalment will be the last of 2005, I promise.