The final – Thursday League
Roughly 35 riders showed up on a balmy summers evening. Once again, Tony split us into two groups (DEFGH and ABC) for this Handicap race.
Our 25 man DEFG group set off a minute ahead of ten forty somethings in the ABC group. We rode the standard flap loop.
Initially the pace was good and I found myself up front at the start following the wheel of P. James (Crawley Wheelers). As the laps ticked away others also took stints to pull us or create moves. From my armchair at the back of the bunch I could see Long Steady Days (S.James), Andrew Buurman and the MK Don himself James Stewart all toiling away at various points . Hmmm
Meanwhile in the ABC behind…
Wallis was at his imperious best and just like the old days went from the gun with Holmes as his partner in crime. The two made light work of the gap and within 5 or 6 we could see them coming in our wing mirrors.
By the 15 minute mark we were eating their dust. If our bunch engines made attempts to engage they they were feeble at best 
The handicapping has been brilliant in this series and we haven’t been caught till the 2nd half of the race on occasions.
So on paper this shouldn’t have been such an easy catch for the youngsters … but us 50+ guys seemed content to plod around at a pretty comfortable 25mph av
Inevitably of course the rest of the ABC group also came across and we essentially remained groupo compacto until the final few laps
Then 3 men – Matt Steels, Aaron Green and Paul James – fired themselves up the road and stayed away to take pos 3,4 & 5
Matt Holmes 
out sprinted Antony Wallis 
to take the W.
Jose Soler took the bunch sprint and Julian Cunnington Niles was the best of the 60+ guys.
Once again on behalf of all the racers big thanks to Tony Meader and Debbie for putting on this great race series 
| Race Position | Name | Club | Cat | Cat Pos |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | matt holmes | Arctic-Aircon RT | B | 1 |
| 2 | Antony Wallis | Regents park Roulers | C | 1 |
| 3 | Matt Steel | Pronto Bikes | B | 2 |
| 4 | Aaron Green | shaftsbury | A | 1 |
| 5 | Paul James | Crawley Wheelers | E | 1 |
| 6 | Jose Soler | Cinnamon cafe SDRT | D | 1 |
| 7 | Andrew Buurman | Rapha CC | D | 2 |
| 8 | Paul Turner | Arctic Aircon RT | D | 3 |
| 9 | David Farrow | Eagle Road club | D | 4 |
| 10 | Cliff Steele | Brixton CC | D | 5 |
| 11 | Duncan Rimmer | Morden CRC | B | 3 |
| 12 | Neil Dowie | Team Terminator | D | 6 |
| 13 | Simon Carter | 4T+ velo club | C | 2 |
| 14 | Steve Smith | Redbridge CC | F | 1 |
| 15 | Steve Foster | Team Aerocycles | D | 7 |
| 16 | Steve Noel | Paradigm Cycles | D | 8 |
| 17 | Julian Niles-Cunnington | Black Cyclists Network | E | 2 |
| 18 | James Stewart | QN Racing | E | 3 |
| 19 | Chris Dunn | API Anglia Sport | F | 2 |
| 20 | Stephen Piper | Velo Schils Interbike RT | E | 4 |
| 21 | Jonathan Donald | London Dynamo | D | 9 |
| 22 | Steven Wade-Jones | Bishops Stortford CC | F | 3 |
| 23 | Duncan Thomas | Aerocycles | E | 5 |
| 24 | Julian Boulter | Eagle RC | D | 10 |
| 25 | Toks Adesanya | Addiscombe CC | D | 11 |
| 26 | Damien Foy | 6am cycling club | D | 12 |
| 27 | stephen simpson | LSD RT | E | 6 |
| 28 | Adrian Ward | Team Terminator | E | 7 |
| 29 | Gregory Smith | Finsbury Park CC | B | 4 |
| 30 | Greg Needham | Lea Valley CC | C | 3 |
| 31 | Trevor Gannon | Tempo Sport | E | 8 |
| 32 | Mark Porter | Lea Valley CC | C | 4 |
| 33 | Simon Constable | Basildon CC | B | 5 |
| DNF | Tim Simpkins | Harlow CC | B | DNF |
| DNF | Richard Barnes | British Masters Cycling | D | DNF |