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Glenrothes Round 4
The course was all set and the riders were pre-riding it...everything
was going fine until I listened to Iain Nimmo and cycled through
the river. Cold Feet are not a favourite of mine at the best
of times, but to have fallen for such a stupid comment ('Let's
see you ride that then...') made it even harder to swallow.
 There
wasn't a huge amount of technicality to the course at Glenrothes,
there were certainly climbs and descent but these were all
on surfaced paths or grassy sections of hillside. This course
was defintely going to be fast - from the outset it was clear
that the only section that would cause problems for anybody
was the stairs leading out of the Start/Finish area. These
were quite steep to walk up but with a bike and competition
they felt like vertical walls.
There were plenty of areas for the spectators to see multiple
sections of the race, these were monopolised by a few of the
Juniors who raced before the Senior event and many of the
racers supporters, the field was loosely shaped like a figure
of 8 but there was no cross-over point.
To help break the field into a wider space, the start headed
off round the last descent (with a climb up to it). Once the
descent was completed you rode through the Finish area (where
all the supporters were making polite conversation!) and then
over to a foot bridge - quite a narrow bridge so a bottleneck
appeared as soon as the leaders got there after the start
it appeared to be smooth sailing in this section.
 For
the majority of the racers, everything was to play for as
the race started off on Sunday - Frederick Morriston was at
the hospital with his wife who was expecting a new
baby (as opposed to getting an old baby?!). This should
have eased the pressure at the top as Iain Nimmo (Merlin/Rock
Lobster) was left to race against what appeared to be a depleted
field.
This image wasn't to be however, as Nimmo had an unlucky
start on the first climb - he managed to loose his back wheel
and had to stop to get it re-seated and sorted, this left
him almost last (there were 2 others behind him, myself and
one other!) going into the first lap. Not to be outdone Nimmo
simply applied the pressure and after about 5 laps was back
in the lead again, where he would remain right up until the
last lap and almost to the finish line.
After being lapped so many times by everyone, I realised
that I was in the wrong position - how was I going to tell
who everyone was? The top few riders soon made themselves
known and Stevie Jackson (Glasgow MBC/Alpine Bikes) made sure
no-one was getting in his way. He gave chase to Nimmo for
almost the whole race and only on the last section of the
last lap did he manange to pip Nimmo to the first place position.
 Colin
Shearer rode an astounding race and managed to beat everyone
in his category with what seemed like very little effort -
from where I was struggling, Colin seemed to be floating on
air!
Sandy Wallace put in a very good effort and seemed to be
lapping faster times as the race went on - it's good to see
that there is still life in the old dog yet!
The Youth race was a hard fought event as well - a number
of the Youths asked to also race the Senior event. This never
happened though as the organiser told them they could get
in the way...after seeing the speed of Robert Wardell (Sandy
Wallace Cycles), Reuben Biemers (Fife Cycling 2000) and Douglas
Shearer (Stirling BC/Wheels of Callander), I found it hard
to believe that they would get in the way of anything!
 The
youth course was a reduced version of the Senior race - basically
the Youths didn't have to climb the steep stairs, which meant
the long straight wasn't in their route. This didn't seem
to deter anyone though as everyone put in complete effort
and fought for the best position they could.
Keri McMahon was the only female youth to race but up until
almost the last lap she was giving as good as she got and
was overtaking whenever she got the chance. Unfortunately
near the end she started to run out of steam and got overtaken.
So far the races this year have been superb, the riders all
appear to be enjoying them and the spectators are staying
round longer to watch the action - numbers are up and the
competition is getting fiercer - we can only wait to see who
comes out Champion at the end of the season.
The next race is at Wheels of Callander on 18th November
at 1pm. Make sure you are there as it's the only way to gain
points!!!
Richard Barton
Race Results
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