ERCC Cat D Team IMG – Managed by Dave O’Carroll
With team numbers boosted to 10 with the addition of Dave Retigan, Luke McConnell, Lisa O’Geran and Paul Kennedy-Roberts joining the regular crew of Jo Patmore, Jon Pickup, Michael Leake, Steve King, Tim Bird and myself Dave O’Carroll, we cautiously hoped for a stronger showing in Round 2, especially after our somewhat disappointing effort in Round 1 previously.
And by the end of race 2, that hope turned into a not too unrealistic expectation of making a serious attempt at a podium position, despite how notoriously difficult they are to achieve (well done AMG on theirs).
Expectations raised of course by how strong Luke, Dave and Paul had proved themselves to be in the first couple of races, making a perfect accompaniment to our existing core of stronger riders Tim, Michael and Jo.
The whole team worked seamlessly together, whether in a team time trial, a points race or even the scratch format which more closely resembles the sort of points awarded in a real life.
Effortlessly filling the 6 allotted rider positions every week with the strongest available rider we had, right up to that fateful wave of the chequered flag in the penultimate one, gave the team a clear and undisputed 4th place in the league going into the final race of the series, race 6!
With everything to play for and a bronzy looking cup tantalisingly close for a podium finish on offer, we all looked forward with inappropriately youthful anticipation given the average age of a typical ERCC member unveiled at the recent AGM.
But with only 7 days between races, a nightmare version of that 24 year old hit record begun to unfold ~
Monday ~
Paul and Steve became C’s on Tuesday
Dave R had smashed his face by Wednesday
Jo was taken down by flu on Thursday, then Luke on Friday
Michael had to work on Saturday
And Lisa was too late back on Sunday ~
So on Tuesday; a heavily depleted 3 man team of Tim, Jon and myself had the now diametrically opposite task of defending against those fully manned teams snapping at our heels, rather than attacking those we were snapping at just a short Craig David week ago…
And as everyone who races in the virtual world of ZRL knows, full teams are prized.
And what do prizes make?
Yes points, and points mean everything in this series, particularly given the insidious number of Sandbaggers operating and dominating the sharp end of a race, whatever the Category!
Well apart from Cat A’s I suppose…
And so it came to pass that we ended up 9th on the night, translating to 6th in the league once the curtain came down on the Round. Not as good as we hoped, but a definite improvement from Round 1 and as Tim is fond of reminding us, we are getting better and better with every passing race.
Round 3 starts the second week of January and with Steve and Paul’s promotion to Cat C’s we have 4 places begging to be filled to give us a full complement of 12 on Tuesday night’s, at or around 6:00 pm.
You’re guaranteed to race in either IMG or BLUE team on the night, meaning no one misses out on a ride and everyone gets to chat on Discord.
Do get in touch if you want to join in.
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