Saturday 4th Cat Race saw HWCC Riders Paul (Cipo) Morrissey, Stuart Smith and Jeff Roberts line up no a blustery, cold, west London day. Within the first lap the race had warmed up, with a lone attack. He was left to cool his ardour for a lap; and then the peloton upped the pace to chase him down.

The race conditions meant anyone moving out of the shelter of the peloton would have to chase hard to get back on. Even with these windy conditions the race averaged 25mph, so there was definitely safety in numbers. The conditions kept the bunch together throughtout, with only limited opportunity for a break-away, no one feeling foolish enough for a suicidal charge. Stuart managed to stay pretty close to the front for the majority of the race with only a few minor incidents involving wheels and riders touching. Fortunately there were no accidents this week, and with 5 laps to go Stuart was in the top ten, Cipo and Jeff safely tucked in but towards the back of the bunch. In the final sprint Stuart managed a very creditable 16th place with Cipo and Jeff coming in with the bunch but neither placing in the top 30. A superb, measured, ride from Stuart and next week will see a much bigger HWCC field in the 4th cats (at the time of writing there are 5 confirmed entrants) so fingers crossed for some better results.

Further details of the other Winter Series races have been posted to the HWCC Race Team Blog. In the Cat 3 race, James Walker placed 8th and Joe Clark 24th. Steve Golla placed 4th in the E123, with Geoff Powell 30th. Jamie Pine (London Dynamo) won, confirming his place at the top of the E123 Series leaderboard with Golla in second and Adam Brittain (though absent at a training camp) holding onto eighth place.