The first race of the Sunshine Cup saw us waking up to cloudy skies but it wasn’t long before the cloud had gone and the beaming hot sun was shining brightly off the chalky trails… and when you consider its snowing in the UK life couldn’t get better!
Ben was the first Monkey to go at the early time of 9.30am against a quality Junior field. The Junior race was now UCI ranked giving it an even higher significance. A bad start didn’t deter the youngster from getting in the mix and he was soon up with the leaders before over shooting a corner and dropping his chain leaving him to play catch up with the leading group. By now the sun was hot and the climbs seriously hard on a technical course. Ben came in shattered in 10th spot after a solid opening race. The senior race was at 11.30 and the hottest time of the day with temperatures reaching as high as 85 degrees. Paul was surprisingly gridded high up the field starting just behind World Marathon Champion Roel Paulisson. The start was frantic and included a long start loop before seven tough laps of the challenging course.
Paul started slowly and never really managed to get into a good rythm while Chris put in a huge effort on the first lap to move up through a congested field on the first lap. Both riders fought hard to stay in the mix of top international riders with many referring to it as a mini World Cup such was the standard of rider!
Chris finished a creditable 44th in tough conditions while paul was disappointed to finish in 61st never really having managed to get going in the heat.
It was a reasonable first race for the team having arrived only 2 days before the race start and now the focus moves onto the stage race which starts in five days time!
It was a mixed bag for our training partners as Sue Clarke (Cannondale) also struggled in the heat but still managed a good 7th place while Lee Williams (Team Wiggle) crashed after being in touch with the leaders and managed to finish the race battered and bruised in 49th position. There was joy for Anthony Morris (Evans Cycles) finishing 3rd in the Masters category.
