We were in Northumberland at the weekend for The Sam Walton memorial RR,130km.
We had all 6 riders entered to ride, but Charlie was a bit under the weather so did not ride.
This race was set to be Billy’s return to racing after a delayed start to his season due to a knee injury.
The route was rolling, without any significant climbs.
The lads were really up for the race and spirits were further lifted by the great weather.
Within 5km the poor road surface had caused several punctures, Liam and Tim both fell victim.
Quick wheel changes and what was a long chase behind the car and they both rejoined the bunch.
During this time, Joe had escaped and been reeled back in, then Jake escaped in what proved to be the winning move.
Unfortunately, Billy had to retire as his knee became painful after 1 hour of racing.
The lead group was 9 riders strong, with riders from Raleigh, NRG Brother, VCUK and other strong teams.
The final 20km saw several attacks from the break, but nothing stuck and with the group reduced to 6 riders, the break entered the final 1km together.
On paper there were 2 very fast sprinters, which in theory would be hard for Jake to beat in this situation.
Jake jumped the riders with 300m to go with a kick that would break a poor quality bike…scary strong.
Jake had a gap of 5 metres and held the gap to the line.
Another win and some great team work adding to a dream start to the season for us.
Inspite of having heavy legs Liam dragged himself out of bed on Sunday morning to ride a 17 mile hilly TT in the Peak District.
Liam won by 4 minutes, underlining his great form.