Aughton 22_04_12

Aughton Road Race

Sunday 22nd April saw the annual Aughton Road Race organised by Lune RCC. The weather was overcast with rain immanent.

Southport CC had 2 riders competing in this race with Spencer Coltman and myself. John Findley of Bill Nickson Cycles RT was also racing. The race consisted of 6 laps of a 6.33 mile circuit, combining to make a total race distance of 38 miles. The course profile is lumpy. After the normal race preparation and a rider briefing, at 10:00, 40 riders lined up outside race headquarters ready to start the race.

 As expected, there was attack after attack with quite a few riders trying their luck to establish a break away early on. Most of the attacks were chased down instantly and easily caught. However, the race sprung into life after around 22 miles with a group of five riders escaping and working well together to pull away gradually. By the line they had established a lead of just over a minute, with fellow junior James Knox of Mountivation Junior Cycling Academy taking the win in the sprint from Wheelbase rival Steve Clarke and Neil Robinson of Lune RCC third. John Findley finished in 4th position.

 The promoting club's Ian Rutherford clipped off the front of the bunch in the last lap to finish sixth, 1:10 down on the leaders, while the bunch came home around 30 seconds further off the pace. Due to its lumpy profile, the course took its toll on many riders. This resulted in the main bunch slowly declining in size, but, soon enough all the riders had crossed the finish line.

 I finished 14th out of 40 riders and Spencer finished in 10th position. My Garmin showed that I had covered 37.19 miles in 1 Hour 36 Minutes at an average speed of 23.1mph. The Garmin also shows that the race took in 2,385ft of climbing. Here is a Garmin Link to the Aughton Road Race

Website Designed by Taylored Web Solutions