RIYADH, 14 March 2003 — Alan Wood once again showed why he is at the top of the Riyadh Wheelers Championship standings, when he rode away from a depleted bunch with consummate ease at the weekend.
With his now familiar trademark move, Wood decided when the time was right to make his attack. This week however, strong riding from the Pinoy Train plus Rob Patrick kept him at a tantalizing 200 meters for more than half the race distance.
In fact, had Jaime Sunga not punctured, Wood could have been reeled in and made to rethink his strategy.
Good to see back in the event after long absences, were Herbert Rom, Paul McParland, Dereck Younge, Dick Bishop and Frank Oberlander, all returning with varying degrees of fitness and stories of missed training opportunities.
Of these it was Rom who had kept the fittest and was able to make an impressive impact on the race, narrowly losing out to Patrick in the furious sprint for second place.
Redeen Platil continuing his good form and outpaced experienced George Morete for fourth with Edwin Seneres just tailed off on the final lap of eight to come home in sixth.
McParland was almost caught napping and forced to use all his skills to out maneuver the tenacious cat B victor L. Pentlebury and snatch seventh place.
Riders struggled in up to 20 minutes behind the winner, an indication how difficult this TNT sponsored short, but hilly, event had been.
Abdallah Al Sarhani announced at the end of the race that a group of 4 Wheelers members were off to Cape Town to compete in the Cape Argus Tour, an annual event which attracts over 30,000 competitors.
The four are Pentlebury, Al Sarhani, mountain bike victor Paul Tupman and K. Allan, all of whom will represent the Wheelers with distinction.
Another member off to International competition is top Master, Chris Arrowsmith, who has chosen the Australian Iron Man in which to wave the Riyadh Wheelers flag, good luck to him in this arduous event!
Results:
1st A. Wood; 2nd R. Patrick; 3rd H. Rom; 4th R. Platil; 5th G. Morete; 6th E. Seneres; 7th P. McParland; 8th L. Pentlebury; 9th A. Al Sarhani; 10th R. Gallardo; 11th L. Fischer; 12th C. Arrowsmith.
