Round 1 – Racing back at Thruxton for 2025!

Cat3 Write up

What started as a beautiful day, lead to an outstanding and busy evening racing at the motor circuit just outside of Andover. Thruxton’s course is dubbed the “fastest in the UK” and 3 miles per lap. Race pace of a Cat 3/4 grouped race is usually around 5minutes per lap or slightly below and normally getting 11-12 laps per race.

The race was a fully packed field with 100 riders taking to tarmac, all in all it’s fair to say the race was dicey at best, with different abilities causing a lot of movement through out the pack and some uneasy maneuvers causing riders to be pushed off the tarmac and onto the grass surround meaning CX skills were being applied. The race saw some early series of attacks from some strong riders looking to get in a break – which was pulled back in every time and bridged by Myles on one notable occasion. Will was at the front making moves and being energetic with his racing, with Simon, Myles and Mark all sitting nicely within the top 40 riders and sheltering from the cross winds.

Unfortunately Lap 9 is where devastation breaks out, what seemingly looks like a tyre blow out caused a 20+ man pile up just at the foot of the clim before the chicane back into the start/finish section. Will was in front and unhindered, although an attack was carried out off the back of the crash. Myles, Simon and Mark all were brought down in the incident and suffered bruises but in the main ok but ultimately meant their race was done. Team owner, Stephen, who’s back on the tarmac for the first time this season was poorly placed sitting towards the back few rows of the field was able to react and move away from the crash perform some CX skills and safely dodge the pile up although recalled the “horrific” sound of a cracked frame as he passed bunny hopping a couple of slight holes in the turf. He directed back onto the short climb but by this point the bunch had taken off and already at the chicane – ultimately had gone, so got himself into a 4up with some other riders in the same position and rode home where the coms stopped the race for these guys at 10 laps.

Will pressed on, looking and feeling strong in the search for a good finish found himself in and around the top 20 actually caught on camera saying to another rider just before the finish he wasn’t going to contest the sprint due to his position but as riders that went too early were reeled in he made a snap decision to put out some power and gain some places. Crossing over the line in 20th however was then collapsed into by another rider resulting in a serious incident on the finish line and black flagging the E123 race about to finish.

Will was in pretty bad shape and had to be seen by the medical team who cleared him with slight bruising and dressed his cuts. He’s now resting and on recovery to get back on the bike asap.

“Thank god for my POC helmet! Hit my head pretty hard & it saved me from any bad injuries for sure!”

Will, after the crash