posted by Mark, 25 May 2009 21 Mountain Bike Riders, including 2 from St John took part in Sunday's Virgin Gorda Mineshaft Challenge race. The 18 Mile route took riders from the Mineshaft Restaurant, through Spanish Town and then over the hills to Savannah Bay through Nail Bay and then the big climb up Gorda Peak before heading back through the Valley to The Mineshaft.
Matt Crossman and Gareth Thomas took up the chase through Spanish Town as the two front runners kept the pace up over the hills, with Leroy finding time to wave encouragement at the chasing riders! Smith was holding on to Leroy's wheel as the riders entered Nail Bay but it wasn't long before Phillipe pulled away leaving him to start the climb on his own. Gareth had also pulled away from Matt and was focused on catching Smith. The two then battled each other up the climb with Smith waiting for his chance to drop Thomas and open up a big gap on the fast descent of Gorda Peak. On the return to the Coppermine Gareth was caught by Crossman and they both worked hard to gain an advantage, however it wasn't until the turn around at Coppermine Point that Gareth managed to pass Matt and take 3rd place just 1 minute behind a surprised Mark Smith who had thought he had a much bigger advantage. "When Phillipe rode away from me on the climb, I knew that I wouldn't have a chance of catching him so I let Gareth catch me and we had a little bit of race up the hill, I made him work a bit harder than he wanted to and when I saw he was starting to suffer I attacked" said Smith after the race. "Gareth and Matt really surprised me though when I saw them at Coppermine and I really had to ride hard for the last half mile". Philippe added "That was a hard race, the climb is long and my heart rate was very high all the way up, it was much harder than I thought it was going to be, but I am pleased to win by such a big gap". The BVI Mountain Bike Club would like to thank the Race Sponsors Last Stop Sports, Dive BVI, Road Town Wholesale/Gatorade, Caribbean Insurers, Zolfo Cooper BVI Limted and of The Mineshaft Restaurant. The 2nd race of the Cadet Series will be held at HLSCC on 31st May, the next championship race is the One Tuff Mudda on Jost Van Dyke on 7th June and the Next X-UP race is Joes Hill on the 3rd June. Expert 1st Phillipe Leroy 1hr.07mins:41 Seconds 2nd Mark Smith 1hr.16 mins 3rd Gareth Thomas 1hr 17 mins 4th Matt Crossman 1hr 17 mins 15 secs 5th Ian Mann 1hr 25 mins 30 secs 6th Antony Spencer 1hr29 mins 40 secs 7th Anghel George 1hr 31 mins 40 secs 8th Matt Collins 1 hr 33 mins 25 secs 9th Nick Matush 1 hr 38 mins 20 secs 10th Adrian Dale 1 hr 43 mins 11th Ziya Neema 1 hr 50 12th Tony Kerber 1hr 50 13th Joe Giacinto 1 hr 53 14th Jim Cullimore 1hr 59 mins 15th Kay Reddy 2hr 2 mins 16th Rhiannon Jones 2hr 6 mins 17th Rusty Burns 2 hr 9 mins 18th Tom Merrigan 2 hr 14 mins Intermediate 1st Keith Williams 1hr 38 mins Social 1st Nicole Charles 28mins 41 secs 2nd Anna Kinnersly 31 mins 7 secs |
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