The Eastbourne Festival of cycling held last weekend attracted a large number of participants, offering a wide array of activities for cyclists of all abilities. Of particular interest to the Lewes Wanderers team was the Third Cat race. The sinuous course around Eastbourne sea front offered many technical challenges, including some tricky 180-degree bends. Lewes participants Tom Glandfield and Dom Lowden both had good rides and finished just off the main bunch of finishers, as did Nick Smith who rode in the Fourth Cat promotion.
On Sunday, four Lewes riders headed westward to ride in the Old Portlians 25 mile event around Broadbridge Heath. Riders were grateful to have a following wind on the outward leg, making the clenched fist descent through Ockley a thrilling experience. Unfortunately, a heavy toll was levied on the return leg were the friendly wind turned face and became a nagging adversary, making the journey from the Southwater roundabout an unremitting grovel, seeing promising times evaporate into the ether as average speeds dropped exponentially to the finishing line.
Lewes new boy Phil Allen made light of the conditions and stormed round in spectacular fashion to post a very impressive time of 55:26, placing him second, a mere twenty or so seconds behind the winner, Mark Clothier of Southdown Bikes. Mark Paton (59:43), your correspondent (1:02:30) and Stephen Gaston (1:06:16) all posted times a minute down from their previous excursion around the course, illustrating the significance of the wind in determining fast times.
The Wanderers are promoting their Evening Criterium Series consisting of three 50km road races, run on Thursday the 6th, 13th and 20th of June. Known as the Lewes Crits, the race is centred on Laughton with racing starting at 7:15pm.
Each event consists of five laps of a circuit up Shortgate Lane, down The Broyle to Kennel Corner and back to Laughton to complete the lap. Along with the competition for overall glory there is a sprint race point prime competition on each lap on Shortage Lane. For the seventh consecutive year the Tri Store in Eastbourne are providing generous sponsorship of the prize fund.
Event promoter, Chris Hough, is delighted to report he has a full field for the series with over fifty competitors signed up and we can look forward to some close and thrilling races over the series.
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