ERCC Cat C Team AMG – Managed by Ashton Parker:
Round 1 saw our team fighting hard in an extremely competitive division. The top four teams were well ahead, but the battle for ‘best of the rest’ went down to the last race and AMG delivered. Finishing a point ahead of sixth and two ahead of seventh.
We started Round 2 with our usual mix of unfounded confidence and nervousness – made worse by a combination of illness and work pressure, which led us to racing the team time trial one rider short. Nevertheless a super strong performance from the five man team of Lord Big Gun Graham Root, the mighty Dave Haynes, Felipe the (solar) Power Gorsuche-Browne and the no knees duo of Darren Salmon and myself Ashton Parker saw us claim an unexpected but very welcome 2nd place. Our five man team finishing less than 20 seconds behind the race winners across a 54 minute race.
Confidence had now been found and nervousness abated for Race 2, but once again finding we only had five riders with Andy Walker and Clare Hills replacing Dave and Darren. A hard but well fought fourth place was the best we could do, despite some stellar efforts by Graham finishing in the top ten, and Felipe and Clare in the top twenty.
Race 3 and again, with a five man team available on the start line. This time however, the finish we achieved was disappointingly fifth, resulting in the team dropping down the league to joint fifth. Which would have been sixth had our team name began with anything other than A, and immediately prompting the team to (worryingly) express their confidence in the DS! Thank God I named it AMG.
Fortunately votes of confidence in cycling isn’t the same as one in football, meaning I could set about my usual DS duties with every confidence and typical flair.
Race 4 brought on another Team Time Trial, or TTT as it’s known by those in the know. Only this time seeing us field for the very first time this series, a full team of 6 and a six who by the end of it, had a solid third place finish secured in the bag!
Race 5 and despite large parts of the squad again being decimated by man-flu, saw a super strong performance from a full squad! Dave and Clare finishing in the top ten, with Felipe, Ashton and Gary Conn all achieving a top twenty finish. A big shout out has to go to Graham for not only getting out of his sick bed to drag himself around the course, but also managing to gain valuable finishing points for the team in the process. Everyones efforts combining to secure a second place finish for the team overall.
Final race, Race 6 saw a full team take the start-line for us again. Given the much reduced field we saw in the pen deployed for the other teams, we suddenly became hopeful of scoring big points in the last hoorah of the round. Alas, it quickly became clear that whilst the quantity was down, the quality of those that were racing was extremely high, and despite battling hard, fourth was the best we could do. Nevertheless, that hard fought fourth meant enough points were secured for the sought after final spot on a podium. Leaving us finishing the season in third and seeing the bronze cup glistening alongside our name on the final league table.
Round 3 of ZRL starts on Tuesday the 14th January and we’re always happy to bolster team numbers with fellow club members.
The same applies to our regular Thursday night TTT (if you’ve read the above you’ll be in the know), which kicks off around 7:00 pm as does our Tuesday night ZRL races.
If you want to dip a toe into the world of virtual racing, do get in touch, as you’d be very welcome.
Leave a Reply