PTW

"Sunny intervals and a gentle breeze" - Race time temp 26C.

The heatwave continues and technically we'll still be in that new fangled heat warning area until midnight so be careful and keep those hydration levels topped up but without resorting to Peroni (the way I've seen some of you trying to clip in I think I'm too late with that warning ).

The essentials;

1. We meet up at the Neath Canal Car Park in Resolven for signing on from about 18.00hrs and closing at 18.45hrs for a prompt 19.00hrs race start.

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

2021.16 by Alf Williams, on Flickr

Yep, Derek Brockway was just about spot-on with the weather last night - nice and hot and not much wind other than a gentle tailwind home. Emma Davies was first off and got to within 10 seconds of a new SB but first back was Team Howell (aka Team Tornado) on their tandem and by a full two minutes too recording 23:53 to finish 9th. John Shehan, resplendent in PTW colours, took 20 seconds off his SB only feeling the breeze of the Evans boys (Stuart 23:55 and Clinton 23:04) go past him and that's a new SB for Stuart as his previous SB was on the back road.

Jeff Rees took a useful 25 seconds off his SB to record 24:17 comfortably holding off his minuteman John Deeley who finished with a 24:13 and John was just 4 seconds away from a new SB. Mike Broadbent did it again by setting a new SB of 23:48 to take the midfield win (the definition of 'midfield' being completely fluid, dependent on who rocks up and entirely at my discretion). Les Thomas was only 2 seconds behind Mike and shook off any holiday ring rust (that'll teach you not to have mudguards on your bike) setting himself a new SB to attack next week. Our road bike boys had mixed fortunes with Graham Rogerson going back a touch whilst Darren Edwards trimmed 16 seconds off his SB to take the road bike win.

Our five seeded riders also had mixed fortunes. Mike Hall dipped into '21' territory with an excellent 21:51 to finish 4th whilst Rod Hicks flatted whilst out on the course but gamely crossed the line to at least take a handful of points. Nicky Morgan took a huge 35 seconds off his SB to finish 2nd with a 21:14 whilst Kyle Blackmore went off course (by about 1km we reckon) but incredibly still finished 3rd with a 21:17. Neil Seaward had a relatively smooth ride trimming 7 seconds off his SB to take the win with a 21:06 (I'm pretty certain that's also a PB for Neil on this course) and it would be fantastic for Neil to get a '20' in before the end of the season.

There's quite a few candidates for Alfie's 'man of the match' but I hope they will forgive me for going back to the impressive ride (and visually impressive too!) by Team Howell. Fantastic to see and we might have a second tandem team (Team G Force) riding next week. Honestly, tandems, they're like buses...

Thanks to Dai for time-keeping and to 'Whistling Will' Williams for, er, whistling... and taking pictures of course. We missed you tonight Gareth (especially Kyle!) but it's great to hear that everything is going well out in Lithuania.

See you next week.