Round 3 and 3rd Bio

Brian Fowler (over 40), Ed Barrett (U23) and Paul Odlin (Overall)receiving their leaders jerseys at Round 3 of the Benchmark Homes 8 race series.

I know some of the team were a bit dissappointed in their performances but in the overall context of things the weekend was still a success for us.

Mike Fitz., Neil, Sam and Johnathan all did sterling work at the front and helping both Paul and Annaliisa. Sam punctured fairly early but got back on quickly when Johnathan dropped back to help him back, great effort by both. Thats what team riding's all about.

Tracy started the race but pulled out early on as she was extremely unwell, she probably shouldn't have even started, but that just shows her absolute determination, as she has won two of the three rounds so far she wanted to keep going.

A break went away very early on in the race and we had 1 rider, Mike Kingan, in it. It also contained Steve Elden & Nathan Hood (Benchmark), Stu Lowe (Lowe & Ass.), and Chris Karton and Brad Hudson (Kelford/Reiker), this group looked like they would be the race winners especially after getting out to a lead of over 4 minutes at one stage, however the bunch eventually got it's act together and pulled back the defict very quickly and before we knew it the race was all back together. Another group then went away containing Mike again along with Anthony Chapman (Lowe & Ass.) and Ed Barrett (Benchmark), Mike and Ed proved too strong for Anthony and spat him out fairly quickly, at the finish Ed proved too strong for Mike. Paul came home in the bunch for 6th place overall, enough to give him outright leadership overall for the series.

So to cap it off: Mike 2nd overall on the day, Paul 6th overall on the day and now the series leader and Annaliisa 1st women home, continuing the Teams domination of the womens section.

That provisionally gives us 3 riders in the top 10 overall, 3rd placed team overall ? Neil 2nd in the over 40's comp ? and no one able to challenge Annaliisa or Tracy.

The Team has so far gained 7 of the available 15 podium spots, is there any other team who can claim the same ?

Roll on Round 4.

3rd Bio:

Michael Fitzsimmons:

Fitzy is one of the peleton heavyweights, a popular wheel to follow in windy conditions, aims to get a top 15 finish....and finish every race, so far so good even if the results say otherwise. (Round 2 results suggest Fitzy had a dnf, but he actually came in ahead of quite a few riders that were listed as finishing).