Rogers sprints to maiden win

Mike Rogers took his first ever win at Torbay on Thursday, a great effort by an up and coming rider. Here is Mike’s report. Thursday 30th June Torbay Velo Park CAT 4 Race report Two Corries were at the start line for the Cat 4 only race, myself and Michael Lewis. The field was around 30 strong with some strong riders from from both Mid-Devon and Bike Chain Ricci. After a few weeks of racing at Torbay some faces were starting to become familiar and so I knew which riders to look out for if there were to be any attacks at the front. Like all races I was searching for some more points to take me closer to CAT 3, I was currently sat on 7 points at the start of this race. On arrival to Torbay it soon became clear the wind was going to dictate the race and sure enough as the race got started the head wind hit, there seemed to be no shelter from it anywhere on the track. As a result I decided the best strategy was to sit in and hide. It’s soon became clear this would be the right tactic with anyone attempting to push on the front soon getting drawn back in and then hanging on the back to recover. Despite the wind, the race seemed to be pretty fast and that pace only increased further as the race continued. We raced on until the 3 laps to go sign was raised, riders then began jostling for positions and despite there being no crashes to this point I was becoming increasingly conscious of the guys with deep set rims as they seemed to be getting pushed all over the course with the heavy wind. As the final lap bell rang out I found myself at the front third of the pack after working my way up the previous lap. As I approached the final hairpin bend I made a daring jump down the outside, screaming at some riders that I was on the outside and coming through, I took the final bend faster than I have ever done previously, which resulted in me popping out in second place with the final long sprint ahead. At this point although I was in a great position I knew I couldn’t sprint from that far out and win but fortunately for me a Mid Devon rider thought he could. I hid behind him until about 200 metres to go and then went for glory, I managed to get past him relatively easily as he had run out of gas and I pushed for the line. All the while aware that in this time others had almost caught me to steal the win but luckily I was able to hang on to take my first ever victory along with 10 points and a CAT 3 licence. Michael Lewis also finishing strong in 4th place.