Herne Hill Velodrome

26-05-10 Track League 6

Guest photographer Rob Mac’s photos  are here - with more to come soon.

• Overall League Table (Senior)
• Overall League Table (Youth)

The weather was predicted to be rainy this evening! However, the sun shone brightly over the ‘drome which brought a packed night of racing. After tonight we have a new leader in the form of Symon Lewis, taking maximum points in all bunch races and even scoring in the Handicap sprint, even though he started on the scratch position.

A new flying 200m sprint event was added to the programme tonight seeing the endurance riders of the odd number variety giving it a go to see if they could hack it as a sprinter. 13 riders took part with Alex Christians taking the sprinter title of the evening with a very quick 13.54, even with only half a lap wind up.. Next week will see the even numbered riders taking part to get the overall results of all riders that took part. Stay tuned to see whether anyone can pip Christians to the top spot…

Riders in the youth event are still fighting very hard to win their races. Andrew Bradshaw had his best night’s racing of the year with two wins. Still in form Freddie Wright took the top spot for all his events, although Max Bergin was getting within half a wheel in some sprints. Female youth riders really showed the boys this week. Abi Van Twisk won with Eleanor Holden taking 2nd in the handicap sprint.

Bryan Taylor was mysteriously away this week meaning Symon Lewis took full advantage, racking up the points in his arch rival’s absence. Tony Allen had a great ride in the warm–up race taking 2nd . Kier Apperly and Tomas Ballhatchet took fine wins in the Devil and Points races. None-other than Estelle Rogers took 2nd in the B points and a greatly anticipated win in the over 50’s and women 3 lap dash. Jim Robertson has not lost this race in over 5 years so this was no small feat (must have been Rebecca Charlton’s cheering egging Estelle on while she assumes a regular spectator spot due to injury!) Yet another Herne Hill super youth, David Conceicao claimed 2nd in the senior B Devil. Lewis won the A devil ahead of VCL regulars Iain Cook and Jason Cattermole. A disgruntled James Solly protested he wasn’t out on the last lap, but that is the way of the Devil!

This week’s main event saw a 20k taken at a somewhat sedate pace. Jim Robertson got nearly three quarters of a lap on the field but it took strong turns from everyone to bring him back. Jules Birks is coming back into form and took the first prime and a 2nd place. Iain cook had many digs – one being a huge effort for the 5 pound prime going with one whole lap to go! It was up to Lewis to lead out the last 300 meters of the sprint to take a comfortable win over Birks and Jason Cattermole.