The club’s race squad were again out in force at round 3 of the Abingdon Winter Crit Series on Saturday, with 11 riders braving the Baltic conditions in a biting cold wind, but with thankfully a dry and safer circuit to race on. Held on a closed circuit course at Dalton Airfield Barracks, all races are for 45 minutes, plus 3 laps.
The 4th category race started at a frantic pace with a break forming very early on with two Star riders, Jonathan Ward and Blaine Carpenter, quickly establishing themselves in this break of five riders.
The wind played havoc with the bunch behind, with a couple of the Star riders getting dropped despite their brave efforts to stay in touch. The big loser was however, race 1 winner Michal Wisowski, who punctured half way through causing him to retire.
Towards the end the bunch failed to catch the break, but Blaine was unfortunately dropped as he struggled with the junior gearing he’s required to run, but Jonathan was still in the breakaway bunch and finished a credible 4th.
Behind, the main bunch sprinted for the minor points, with Reuben Trotter finishing 5th and Simon Bull just out of the points. Gregor Kelling also made a great effort and finished in the main bunch.
In the 3rd category race Simon Kisley wasn’t feeling that great and the race pace was higher than normal, but he still managed to finish in the bunch.
Banbury Star turned up with the biggest team for this popular local event and for the third week in a row our fledgling race squad have managed to score points. The final race in the series is on Saturday 3rd March and again the club will enter a strong and improving team.