Round 1
Thankfully we were greeted by a sunny, if a little windy evening and a full field of riders. The Condor bunch had a plan to stay near the front, in fact we had 4 riders cruising the front 20 places for most of the race which was encouraging. 2 of our riders were attempting to make breaks stick, whilst Mike and Ed W chased down anything on the front. Unfortunately a few crashes further back in the pack caught out some of our riders. A suicidal break from Jonny with 500 metres to go fell foul, unfortunately we couldnt capitalise with a top ten, But Matt, Ed and Mike all finished in the top 15.
Round 2
Its safe to say that Round 2 was a very different beast, with three laps of a road loop taking in a long drag and steep descent on each lap. Great organisation from our boys kept us at the front doing lots of work, Dan Bradley driving the pace early with Mike and Ed keeping Jonny and our designated man for the day, Brett, out of the wind.
A last lap breakaway was reeled in by Jonny and Ed, with Ed piling through the pack to the front to hammer the last climb. Again, poor positioning left us caught behind a rider sitting up at the sprint, leaving OTCC on the front to take many of the top tens. Improvement was tangible though and we were looking forward to Dalton Barracks.
Round 3
Back to the closed circuit. We had a clear plan to keep Jonny and Matt out of the wind as we knew Jonny could deliver him to the front to utilise his sprint. it was great to see some new condors try there first race (although Sam H was very unlucky with a chain snap early on!). Sam E felt good enough to have a dig off of the front, chapeau!
The plan was carried out as closely as you can in a bunch of 80 racing maniacs, with breaks being chased down by Ed, Steve and Brett keeping Jonny and Matt near the front. With 3 corners left, Steve wound it up and took Jonny and Matt through, with the knowledge that we had a few places to make up, Jonny got to the front and launched a long one. Matt kept close to his wheel and came in third after a long draggy sprint with OTCC and Dan of AW Cycles. A podium was fair reward for the effort of all the boys.
Round 4
It was with trepidation that we arrived at Woodcote, with by far and away the most challenging course set in front of us. The famous Catsbrain climb up to Woodcote had caught a few of us out in previous races! We were glad to have experienced racer Alec come ride with us and he didnt dissapoint, slipping back into the racing without much fuss! Great efforts from Ed W who came in just behind and Steve, Brett, Kurt, Mike and Ollie who got round. Jonny and Sam blew up early on and enjoyed watching the race very much!
Next up, The Condor leg of the ORRL, hoping to get a “home win” on a bumpy but not too technical course.