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There was an excellent turnout of Wobblies riders for the third Lincs League race of the season on the flattish route of Revesby.
Peter Barnes and Tony Mendham started in Group 1. Group 2 consisted of Phil Atherton, Rich Edwards, Paul Conneelly and Rob Johnson. Ant Conneelly and Dave Ostler went off in Group 3 with Tom Mendham in Group 4. Jimmy was away so there was no representative in Group 5.
Peter and Tony rode well within their group and the going only got tough for them when Group 2 came through just after the half-way point. Disaster was only just averted by Tony Mendham's silky bike handling skills when Phil Atherton chopped him up as Group 2 went by, "some team mate" he was heard to say later "he nearly sat on my handlebars!"
All riders within Group 2 were riding within themselves and with Paul Conneelly doing his share of the work, he launched a mini-attack 8 miles out up the only little climb of the day. No one joined him and he quickly retreated into the pack to conserve energy.
With 5 miles to go Group 3 caught Group 2 and the remnants of Group 1. The pace slowed a little before the final drag to the finish and Phil Atherton found himself doing a couple of stints on the front which he was to pay for as the race for the line hotted up.
The Wobblies featured well at the finish with 5 riders in the top 20. Paul Conneelly managed an excellent third place for the second time this season (Group 3 next week surely!), Dave Ostler was top 6, Ant Conneelly top 10, Rich Edwards top 15 and Rob Johnson top 20. Phil Atherton had blown big style on the final drag but still did well in his first Group 2 ride.
Of the others Tom Mendham finished in the bunch of Groups 4 and 5 that finished a couple of minutes behind the leading groups, having failed to catch them. Peter Barnes gallantly ploughed on and managed to get a tow off all the chasing groups to finish a couple of minutes behind groups 4 and 5 for his best performance to date. And finally, Tony Mendham gave up and cycled straight back to his car, where he could be seen shaking and repeating, over and over, "I can't believe the tub o lard nearly fetched me off, my own team mate n all".
All in all a pretty good night for the Wobblies and it was nice to see Janet and Alan East making the trip out to take some photographs and watch their boys.
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