mersey roads bikeline two day

Mersey Roads Two Day bicycle race




With Steve Lloyd the only Deeside Olympic rider in this E/1/2 event I thought I would go and offer some support.
Mark Jones and myself (Andy Windsor appeared at the side of the road with a Costa Coffee, just opened a new shop in Kinnerton?) rode up on the Saturday morning to watch the 1.6Km Prologue (and drool over all the bling on show). With a strong head wind blowing it must of made the Kinerton bumps feel a lot longer. Steve was the 5th rider off and put a decent time of 0:03:34.69 the early start time gave him a decent rest before the afternoon stage.

The afternoon stage was 56Km around the Hope circuit starting at 14:00, so I rode home got a quick shower and change and drove back up to Hope with Amanda so we could get some shots of the last of the TT and the afternoon race. The wind had dropped slightly but still blew into the riders faces along the long exposed section past the cement factory. There were a few breaks that tried to get away but they were all pulled back until the last lap when the field got blown apart by the attacks, a small group did eventually get away from the bunch with Evan Oliphant taking the stage ahead of Dale Appleby and Dean Downing. Steve finished just behind the main field and he looked glad to of survived.

Sunday's stage was the long one. 138Km around Denbigh and Ruthin including the climb over the Bwlch before dropping back down through Mold to the finish in Hope. We drove up to the start and wished Steve good luck, Rob Partridge came over and passed on some encouraging words along the lines of "it's all going to kick off from the start!", nice. We drove out to Llandyrnog and stood on the roundabout after the climb. A small group had pulled away but the Rapha Condor riders had a tight grip on the front of the bunch and seemed in control. Steve looked more comfortable with sort of distance and positioned himself nicely in the bunch, with the climb over the Bwlch to come after 4 laps of the Llandyrnog circuit, energy useage had to be kept to a minimum. After the bunch passed us on the last lap we drove to the Bwlch and parked near the top in the lay-by just after the sweeping right hander (as you climb). Two riders were clear but the Rapha boys were now bearing down on them. The front group seemed not to notice that this was uphill and powered up and over. Steve put in a fantastic effort up this climb and rode as strong as I have seen him, passing riders and moving up the field and dropping a group of riders who were trying to stay with him. We drove down the lanes through Llanarmon and made it to the finish just before the riders arrived. Steve came home 4:12 behind the winner, Ian Wilkinson SIS, but still a cracking performance especially when you consider your recovery includes some pram work!

Well done Steve.

Finally I'd like to mention Rob Partridge who worked like a Trojan for Dean Downing (as did all the Rapha boys) and still managed to finish fourth overall.

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