Mitcham has to dig deep to record a career-best
ON SUNDAY, the Revel Outdoors mountain bike race team were in action in the third round of the Thetford Racing winter race series at Brandon.
William Mitcham and Dan Collins rode in the 18-39 age two-hour category while Garry Houghton, Darren Davis and Robert Balaam rode in the 40-plus two-hour category.
Davis had a fast start and was in the top five of his category with Houghton and Collins not too far behind. Chasing them both was Mitcham and Balaam, who both settled into respective positions in the top quarter of their categories.
Mitcham settled into his race pace as the lap progressed. Davis pushed on hard for the first two laps and was in third place in his category and feeling strong. Houghton found his rhythm and settled into the top 20 with Balaam further down the field.
During the second lap, Collins had a big fall going over the bars, which slowed him and forced him to stop at the end of the third lap.
Mitcham managed with ease to start his fourth lap way before the cut off time, but soon realised he had run out of water, and with fatigue and cramp creeping in, he slowed so he could complete the race. He had again improved and had his best result of his racing career.
Balaam was forced to stop at the end of his third lap as went over the two-hour cut-off time before he could start the fourth lap.
Meanwhile, Houghton was now well into his race and riding well feeling stronger lap by lap. He passed several riders and could see Davis in the distance. He pushed hard and just after the start of the fourth lap had caught up with his team-mate.
He dug deep and passed Davis riding away from him slowly during the lap also passing other riders that were tiring in the tough conditions.
Houghton ended up in a sprint finish up the last climb with the fifth-placed rider, but was victorious at the finish line, with Davis not far behind.
On the same day there was also a four-hour race for the real endurance experts.
Revel Outdoors riders were Kurt Broad and Richard Muchmore in the 40-plus class.
Broad and Muchmore were evenly matched throughout the whole race and the battling team-mates rode well in the cold damp conditions.
Broad just managed to ease away from Muchmore by a minute during the last two laps, a fantastic effort.
Muchmore, who is recovering from a knee injury, said he was happy with his eventual result considering his lack of training.
Results: Two-hour under-40s: William Mitcham 40th 4 laps in 2.38.45; Dan Collins 52nd 3 lap 1.46.03. Two-hour over-40s: Garry Houghton 5th 4 laps in 2.16.38; Darren Davis 9th 4 laps 2.17.40; Robert Balaam 61st 3 laps 2.01.13. Four-hour under-40s: Kurt Broad 10th 7 laps in 4.16.15; Richard Muchmore 11th 7 laps 4.21.47.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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