Top Ten for Rob King in debut race for AW Cycles RT

Vince Halpen and I (Rob King) along with about 30 other riders braved the wet and cold for the 8th round of the imperial winter series. Although conditions were wet, the worst of the rain had passed before the start.

2 Sigma riders went away early in the race, Phill Sykes and Steve Golla. The gap was not that big at first and the bunch seemed happy to keep them in sight. But when Golla was brought back, Sykes continued on and had the pace to open up a bigger gap. Riders were now looking to form another break, but nothing seemed to stick. Vince was the first of us to launch an attack and stayed out there on his own for about a lap before being brought back. I then had my turn and attacked up the rise towards the finish unfortunately no one followed so I went alone, but there was quite a strong headwind down the back straight which made it hard to stay away and was soon closed down. I continued to keep near the front and try and get in a move and after about 40 minutes was feeling tired so I decided to drop back to mid bunch to recover. This is when a group of 5 riders got away, the gap grew. One rider did get dropped from the break but they still maintained a good gap. Golla and another rider then got away and started to chase. I decided to try and jump across to them and was joined by 3 others and together we got across to the pair.
 
With 5 laps to go the group was sharing the work reasonably well although I was worried it was not fast enough to stay away from the bunch. With one lap to go we was within sight of the group of 4 ahead and the bunch was closing in behind. We continued to work together until the final bend at the bottom of the rise. I was second wheel at the bottom of the climb behind the fast finishing Jo Skelton (Brixton Cycles). Skelton started his sprint first and I lost a bit of ground. Jason Streather (VC St Rapheal) took the sprint ahead of Skelton, followed by Golla and with me just behind in 4th.

Sykes took the win by 35 seconds with Robert Moore leading home the chasing break of 4. I finished up 9th overall and Vince still managed to finish towards the front of the bunch in 14th despite having trouble with his gears at the end.