RECENTLY five of the Club's road racers travelled down to Langport in Somerset to take part in the 63mile Chard Wheelers Road Race.
With the course shortened to just 3 miles a lap due to roadworks on the original course a strong team of Ian Sutcliffe, Guy Stevens, Gareth James, Graham Edwards and Steve Thomas set about racing aggressively the minute the neutralised first lap finished and the racing started proper.
At the end of the second lap Sutcliffe broke away with Rich Harris of Cwmcarn in pursuit of two leaders who had already established a gap of 20 seconds or so.
Over the next four or five laps the gap to the breakaway yo-yoed at around 30 seconds whilst other riders tried their luck at getting across to the break.
Eventually 9 riders, including Sutcliffe, broke the resolve of the bunch and the break was allowed to gradually increase it's lead to 2 minutes halfway through the race.
Edwards was unlucky to suffer a mechanical failure early in the race and despite a valiant chase to rejoin the bunch was eventually lapped by the breakaway, due to the short course, and pulled out of the race by the officials.
Over the course of the second half of the race the break steadily increased its advantage to 4 minutes and the bunch were left to contest the minor places from 10th down to 15th for ranking points.
Stevens and James set up the bunch sprint for Thomas (a la Team Columbia for Cavendish) only for the dreaded cramp to strike Thomas in the last 500mtrs of the race and all three had to be content with a mid bunch finish. Sutcliffe sprinted to 7th place at the head of the race.
The following weekend saw the best riders in Wales converging on the seafront in Tywyn, Gwynedd for the Welsh Criterium Championships, hosted by Dysynni CC for the third year running.
In the Youth races the James family, the Fords and Thomas's all travelled to take part in the Championships. Megan James won the Under 8 category girls Championship whilst Rhys Thomas won Silver in the U8 boys.
Ffion James won Bronze in the U12 Girls, whilst Lowri Thomas was 4th in the U10 girls having held 2nd for much of the race but fading in the latter stages.
Rebecca James took part in the newly introduced Women's Championship and, despite being in a major strength training block for her sprinting, raced aggressively to eventually win Silver in an event that's nearly 10 times the distance she'd normally race!
Chris Howarth took part in the senior support race for 3rd category riders, finishing in the 2nd bunch after a spirited performance, whilst Steve Thomas once again braved the race of attrition that is the Senior Welsh Championship event eventually coming home 12th after battling to catch the group that was challenging for 5th, 6th and 7th.
Andrew Williams of Cwmcarn Paragon won the Welsh Senior Championship to add to his Junior Road Race title won earlier in the year.
At Llandow on Thurs 7th August Steve Thomas picked up the last of the points in 10th place, while the Forza team again dominant securing a 1-2-3 with a three man break that the bunch failed to recapture despite some hard riding.