R1 Mower Mec 2-Up Series: North Shropshire Wheelers 10

It was a low key start to the newly renamed Mower Mec 2-Up Series as just three pairs took the line under leaden skies threatening to break at any moment, whilst riders had to fight through a howling southerly gale that significantly hampered progress in the North Shropshire Wheelers 10 at Prees. With the weather looking increasingly ominous throughout the event, thankfully it resisted long enough for the racing to complete – but not for the trip back to HQ, with competitors and helpers suffering a major drenching.

The Paramount CRT pairing of Chris Riley and Rob McGregor took the win in 23 minutes 44 seconds to take an early Series lead, with that time giving an indication of just how tough it was out there. Speaking for the team Chris Riley’s comments echoed the mixture of feelings about the event: “Rob and I both enjoyed the event which was friendly, well organised and had loads of marshals. It was brilliant to have been winners, and a good start to the Mower Mec 2-Up Series. A great pity not to have seen a bigger field taking part, but maybe a blessing as torrential rain fell for half an hour moments after we had finished our run – many thanks to North Shropshire Wheelers”.

The numbers racing were nearly depleted further after Wrexham RC’s Stan Elmit and Jan Kardasz had a complete disaster with equipment, forgetting water bottles and frantically having to charge misbehaving lights in a hurry which have been made compulsory for racing – and missing their start time after misjudging the time it would take to check out the course. In the end they got around in 25:20, pushing out North Shropshire Wheelers Dave Drew and Geoff Edgerton by 1:53. Kardasz explained: “A bit of a disaster for Stan and me, my rear light wouldn’t work even though I charged it up the day before, Stan forgot his bottle for race, and I had already forgotten mine when I rode to his house! We missed our start time but were kindly put in – we arrived that early that we drove the course and then missed our start time. Got drenched riding back, but apart from all that, still glad I did it though, but a shame about the turn out”.

Full result:

• There’s a long wait until the next event of the Mower Mec 2-Up Series with Hafren CC promoting Round 2 on 15^th June.