Imperial Winter Series Race 12

Just above freezing and wet, started with drizzle but then soaking but little wind.  The 3rd cat race kept together this week with the bunch sprint taken by William Goulbourne from Neil Wass with Jacek Reder's 3rd place winning him the series..
Just under an hour's racing at an average of 25.2mph.  My max of 31.9 was nowhere near sufficient to keep up with the bunch sprint at the end.

Jacek Reder, Greg Wiltshire and Ken Buckley taking the 3rd cat honours presented by Tony Doyle MBE, who earlier described his remarkable comeback from a severe crash in 1988 

So yet another winter series draws to a close.  A huge debt is owed by racers in the London area to the Collins family.  A real family effort and I had not realised until yesterday the full extent to which distant cousins are drawn into this huge undertaking.  As always they run their races superbly and deal with the ups and downs in the very best interests of the sport.

At a personal level I have hugely enjoyed the racing, though I have done fewer of them than in the past 5 years.  It has been perfect for me to dip a toe tentatively back into racing after the traumatic end I had to last season.  I definitely need to work on my (lack of a) sprint but with most of my 'training' done commuting into London, this can be awkward.  The great popularity of the series confirms to me that racing cyclists are spearheading the post-Olympic boom in general cycling.  Within the current welcome initiatives to popularise cycling further it is, in my view, important not to lose sight of the interests of those who wish to cycle fast.