PTW

We enter the second-half of our mini-series with event 5 out of 8.

With exactly 24 hours to go the weather forecast looks a bit dicey for race time with rain coming in at start time and it looks very windy too. I can't see the wind going away but there's a fighting chance that the rain will hold off.

(Alfie puts down his half-full wine glass)

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 38 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.

2020.06 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

I think everyone agreed that we got away with it tonight as the forecast high winds and rain just about kept away. Now it wasn't a good night, far from it, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse!

Unexpectedly, twenty riders started with Ffion getting us underway followed by Ellie with both riding well in the tricky conditions but ultimately going back a bit from previous weeks. With one exception, this was essentially the story of the night so well done girls. Rob Lucas was off closer to the start than his season ranking suggests and, in a tussle with John Shehan, Rob was just pipped by five seconds. Bill Gannon was the first of our 24-minute men (getting a SB) whilst Hugh Pascoe was purposely placed in the lower half of the field and rode well to record the first '22' of the night and was reasonably close to his SB at just 18 seconds down. Even closer to his SB was Karl Rees who hasn't been getting many miles in at the moment but did well to get within 10 seconds of his previous SB and is sure to get a short '23' if he keeps it up.

Our next highlighted tussle was between Julian and Hollie with Julian trying out a road bike tonight but 'Two Litre Labunsky' got the upper hand. Stephan and John Aspell went backwards a bit but only on par with the average for the night as did the riders in our third highlighted tussle between John Deeley and Tony Howell. Now this was close! It ended with John getting four seconds ahead of Tony probably due to his swift commuting miles or possibly due to Tony not having a Lighthouse breakfast at Trams this week. Following them was Dylan Sage who leapt away impressively from the start and got another '23' to his name and holding off Graham Howell who took the midfield win this week. I'm not forgetting Mike Hall who is in a sort of no-man's land but, to be fair, on the night Mike got to within 26 seconds of his SB.

Our final four all went with the seeding with Neil Seaward just 20 seconds down on his SB to finish fourth whilst Martin Sage was only 11 seconds down on his SB to finish third and got closer to Rod Hicks who took second place. Once again, Andy Davies our visitor from the Jif squeezed out a shortish '20' to take a conclusive win and it is for this reason that Alfie's 'man of the match' goes to Andy Davies.

Big thanks to Will for acting as a car park attendant and taking photo's and thanks also to Dan for acting as our back-up TK this week.

Get well soon Dai!