Another warm day on a dry course on the grounds of former Royal Cordite factory (RNCF) at Admiralty Park in Wareham for today’s Wessex League race meet. Sotonia had four riders in the vets race – Phil Connell, Simon Guard, John Phillips and Jez Hart with Dave Belcher racing in the seniors after us. The course was pretty technical and as bumpy as a Ryanair landing in places.
After a fast uphill tarmac sprint start, the field of over 50 riders had to climb a 6ft grass bank through a narrow gap. Phil and I got a decent start avoiding the carnage on the bank behind and tackled the route through woodland, followed by a fast downhill section of narrow single track through woods. The course then featured several switchbacks across tree lined meadow, which was so bumpy it felt like I was riding a pneumatic drill. 2 laps of this punishment and Jez had to take his foot off the gas, letting a group of 5-6 riders including Simon come past. Jez managed to hold position after that, taking a couple of places back in the last lap of what was a pretty brutal course. As usual, impossible to say where we finished but somewhere in the top half would be a good bet, Phil being first sotonia rider, closely followed by Simon.