PTW

All too quickly we've reached the half-way mark in our short eight-event 2020 club championship.

With 48 hours to go the weather forecast looks pretty crap but could well change to give us a weather window on the night.

The essentials;

1. We meet up at the Neath Canal Car Park in Resolven for signing on from about 18.00hrs and closing at 18.40hrs for a prompt 19.00hrs race start.

2. You have to be member of the PTW or an existing second-claim member of the PTW. There is no 'single race' fee - you have to join the club as a first-claim member or be an existing second-claim member.

After two events our pool of riders is already 36 riders with only 28 riders allowed - so, regretfully, we have now closed the doors to second-claim membership.

To clarify, there will be a maximum of 28 riders taking part. Getting there early does not guarantee that you get a ride but getting there late guarantees you won't!

Most of you now have a race number that they will keep until the end of September... some even have two

There will be no facility for choosing numbers. Race numbers have been washed, dried in the sun and randomly placed in a tight-fitting box. One of the two officials will then draw off the uppermost number from the box. This is only in the unlikely event of over-subscription where first-claim members get initial priority and we then get into a luck of the draw scenario.

2020.05 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Thankfully, my 'weather window' appeared at the right time for a good night of racing but it was a slightly unusual night in that some riders went forward and some went backwards but never by extreme amounts. Although Shirley was the exception with a definite bounce-back ride from last week getting to within a minute of Emma. Rob Lucas overtook them both to become the first rider home and record a new SB whilst John Shehan went back a little bit from last week

A warm welcome (at last) to John Aspell of PDQ who joined us a few weeks ago but finally got to race tonight setting a benchmark 23:45 for himself and on a road bike - well done John. Julian and Hollie are destined to be locked in a (short) season-long battle with Hollie keeping ahead by 7 seconds but the good news is that they both went forward - such is the white heat of competition! Our midfielders were a mixed bag with Graham Rogerson going forward on his road bike whilst Les had wretched bad luck to puncture before and then during his ride. Stephan went back a bit but this is only relative to his stunning breakthrough ride of last week. Long-time pals John Deeley and Tony Howell are also destined for battling it out in the second half of the season with Tony edging out John by 7 seconds with both recording SB's. Our final midfielder was Dylan Sage who took the midfield win with a 23.01 and is now a promotion candidate. Our two road bike seeds went forward by about the same amount with Darren Edwards knocking on the door of a '22' whilst James crashed through with a 21:47 to take third place on the night and there's more in the tank I feel - see what I did there?

Our top four seeded riders all went slower than in previous weeks but all four by just a few precious seconds. Kyle Jones did another '21' to finish fourth on the night, with James Lewis in third. The gap between our top two this week looks familiar as it's been hovering at about 21-22 seconds for a few weeks now and kudos to Rod Hicks for holding off Martin Sage - it can't be easy! For Alfie's 'man of the match' this week I'm going back to the midfield and awarding it to Tony the Tiger and urging him to shoot for a '22' before we close in mid-September. Well done everyone.

As always, thanks to Will and also to Dan Black (he's keen as mustard you know).

Get well soon Dai!