Matty and Rich Stokoe traveled to Sunny Eastbourne on Sunday for the town’s cycling festival.
Rich was off first in the first race of the day: the 4th cat Criterium. Rich started in the third row of the grid. The race set off at a frantic pace, after the race Rich commented that his heart race was well over 200 bpm on the first lap, and the front row of riders pulled out a sizeable gap in the first corner, leaving everyone else to negotiate the first corner and chase the leaders down. Unfortunately there was a crash in the first lap in Wellington square with about 5 riders coming down, which slowed the chase and left two riders up the road. Rich settled in with a group of 4 which dwindled to 2 although his group picked up a dropped rider and rode round to finish just outside the top ten.
Matty in action at Eastbourne
The end of the day saw Matty’s race, and Matty started in the middle of the bunch, again not ideal as the leading riders were away before the rest came round the first corner . Matty rode well working with other riders . There was an accident in his race and the race was stopped and restarted with the leaders being started at 5 sec intervals . Then they started the last 3 groups all together and Matty and his companion lost the advantage they had built up . Matty was lapped by the leaders although he finished well.
