Raif takes second at the Maria Thompson Memorial Road Race
This weekend saw the 3rd edition of the Maria Thompson Memorial, our annual road race that celebrates the late Maria Thompson, a much-loved member of the club. Maria was a talented 2nd Cat racer with passion for bikepacking and adventures, she left us all too early, passing away in 2017.
We had to cancel the women’s race this year due to low numbers, partly due to calendar clashes, but fortunately had a sold out field for the Open Cat 3/4 including a couple of women who transferred their entry.
The Open 3/4 saw a good turnout from the Wheelers with six represented and big teams from Le Col RT, Wolfox Cams Le Col, Paceline and VCGH. It was great to see clubs represented from further afield including Thames Velo, Lee Valley and Reading CC.
The storm the night before and resulting wet roads ensured it was going to be a fairly attritional day with a greater chance of splits in the bunch. Raif Ososki capitalised on a lull in the bunch with an early attack to get away. He reports back from a big day out in the breakaway:
“I cycled over to the race, regretting wearing white Spatz and the road was wet and grimy. What lay ahead was a 50 mile road race – 5 laps of a pretty flat 10 mile Norwood circuit.
We had six wheelers donning the jersey this year: Alex, Harry, Bill, Tony, John and me. While we pinned on our numbers, Harry and I started to hatch a plan. We both wanted to be in a break so we would take turns to go with one; when one of us was caught by the bunch, the next would go while the other one disrupted the chase. We also thought that the larger teams, Le Col RT & Wolfox, would need to be in it too to have any chance of making it…
6km of neutralised roll-out behind the safety car got us to the start line. I was near the back and hadn’t actually noticed the flag drop until I saw a Wolfox guy up the road 😂. It felt like the pack just let him go quite easily so I thought “let’s join him”. I launched, hoping I would sweep a couple with me to break, but no, when I caught up with Wolfox, it was just us two. I was tempted to just sit up and wait for something else more substantial to go but the peloton looked very relaxed with the two of us up the road so I thought I would press the advantage a little bit.
Despite almost not making one of the corners in the wet (don’t ask 😅), we managed to open up a good gap and were working well together. We got a call from the moto saying it was a 30s gap, then another a little later on saying it was 1 minute, then a 1:20 gap but this time, he also said there were two riders 20 secs behind. We both very quickly agreed to wait for them and it turned out to be a good call, with a Le Col RT and a Paceline rider joining us – now all the big teams were represented!
The next 3 laps flew by, the now four-man break was working well together and managed to get the lead to 3:30 mins. Behind, Le Col and Wolfox as well as KW’s very own Harry were covering breaks and disrupting the chase 🤝.
Last lap rolled around and the speed at the front noticeably slowed. We got to the only real kicker on the circuit (still 5 miles from the finish) when Le Col sent it over the top, leaving the three of us chasing. I was surprised he went so far out but the gap just kept going the wrong way, the Wolfox guy also took this as his cue to sit at the back, not pulling and saving himself for the sprint.
This further disrupted the chase as now me and the rider from Paceline didn’t want to tow him to the line. I flicked an elbow and no one came around, so I sat up and dropped the speed. There were a few tactical attacks out of corners to try and shake each other but it was clear it was going to be a sprint for 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
We crested the final riser with the finish line almost in sight, I was 2nd wheel. As soon I saw the line I gunned it, hoping to catch the other two off guard and with a sort of medium distance sprint… luckily, it worked! and managed to roll across the line before the other two, with Wolfox 3rd and Paceline 4th.
Second on the day for me, the winner had a good gap to us in the end, with the peloton only about a minute behind us after all our silly game playing. Bill managed to secure 6th in the bunch sprint, meaning a overall finish in 10th 💪
Such a fun outing though: discussing tactics before, being cheered on by the wheelers on the side of the road, the post race debrief with everyone afterwards – So good. Big thanks to Phil for organising and everyone who volunteered to make it happen!”
Echoing Raif, a big thanks to Phil, all the volunteers, comms and accredited marshals who gave up their Sunday morning to help out. We’ll be looking to run the women’s race next year and looking for a date and format that has the best chance of a packed field.
Photos by Mark James. Full gallery available here.
