88 riders turned out for the latest Offcamber-organised mountain bike race at Inside Park near Blandford on Sunday. There were a couple more tweaks to the ever-improving course, which was slippery in places, although not as bad as round three in November.
It was the usual faces at the front of the race, with Paul Hopkins opening up a 30 seconds gap by the end of lap one over Kim Little. Paul maintained this lead until the end of the three lap event, with Kim second and Sam Humphrey third a further minute behind.
Andy Parsons was nursing an injured wrist but was still well placed in eighth, roughly seven minutes behind Paul by the finish. Scawen Roberts continues to improve and finished in 18th, with Dan Brockway 21st and Dan Riggs in 23rd.
Liam Teesdale started quickly but dropped back towards the end to come home in 25th, a couple of seconds ahead of Jerry Cooper who had James Chant a similar distance behind him. Jerry was second in the over 50s category and now leads that section of the series overall. Jim Broom was fourth in the over 50s and has moved up to second place overall now.
Chris Mullett had his first off road for a year or so and enjoyed it a lot more than the last time. Chris’ was lapped by the end but was much quicker on his second lap as he got to grips with his new bike and the course.
Stef Greenaway took part for the first time in the series and did well to finish in sixth in the two lap women’s race, with Lynn Broom in eighth.
There were also three of the GDW Youth Academy regulars competing. Ben Hywel-Davies had his first taste of off-road racing, eventually retiring after a couple of crashes, while Toby Easby put in some good lap times on his way ninth of the 13 junior starters. Another debut came from Daisy Davies who impressed with a lap time quicker than the other GDW juniors and women riders.
Full results are here
The next round of the GDW Alfred’s Tower races is on December 21st, starting at 930.
