Ingerreke Day 4

16/5/13

ICME STAGE 5

Stage 5 was a race against the clock.  The 23km Time Trial loop started from the picturesque golf course and included mainly fast sections of fire-road and 4wd tracks, with a little single-track thrown in.  Riders were set off at 30sec intervals, in reverse order on the general classification.  This meant that each rider had a carrot to chase. Unlike in a road TT, there were no rules against drafting, so tactics could come into play with bunches forming.  This worked to team Specialized favour as Andy Blair caught up to teammate Sean Lewis on track and they were able to work together for much of the way.

Andy continued his winning ways to take out this stage over Sean Lewis in 2^nd and Ben Hogarth from team Giant finished 3^rd.

It wasn’t too surprising that ex Irish National TT Champ Jenny Fay took out this stage almost a full minute ahead of Rowena Fry.  The battle for overall is shaping up to be a tight one! It was fantastic to see Kelly Bartlett ride to 3^rd place in this stage.

I was mighty impressed with Kerry Ryan, who recovered from a nasty crash early on to finish 2^nd Master rider. Jane Ollerenshaw also powered through the stage to finish in the top half of the Vets category. Jane’s husband, and paint brush extraordinaire, Steve Munyard is having a close battle in the men’s vets category. He currently sits in 4^th, but only seconds off the podium.

Terri Rhodes & Jane Ollerenshaw, lights ready for the night stage

Stage 5 TT started at the golf course

ICME STAGE 6

Riders were set to tackle exactly the same course as they’d ridden in the TT that morning, only this time the 2 added elements of darkness and a mass start were added into the mix. This night stage is always a favourite amongst the competitors each year and given the post-race comments, this year’s race didn’t disappoint.  The only negative for the riders was trying to lower the levels of adrenaline enough to get to sleep at a reasonable hour following the race!

There were no shake-ups to the men’s overall classification, with the main contenders finishing within seconds.  Sean Lewis took the win in a spectacular sprint finish over the ever-consistent Andy Blair and young Kyle Ward in 3^rd.

There were a few dramas in the open women’s division, when Jenny Fay snapped a chain early on. A broken chain can be hard to fix at the best of times, but the darkness can make things extra tricky.    Lucky for her, one of the other competitors stopped to lend a hand and Jenny was able to get back on board and motor through the field to limit her losses.  It looks like overall victory is now out of the question though, as she lost over 12min to Rowena Fry. Row certainly rode impressively in the darkness as she took out this stage by 4min, ahead of Terri Rhodes in 2^nd and Kelly Bartlett 3^rd.

Riders put on a great light show for the spectators!