LEO 30 roundup

Coyle fires a warning shot

Phil Hodey’s tires were the only let down on Shaftesbury Super Saturday at the Leo 30. While Hodey was walking back to HQ having evolved from ‘tubeless’ to ‘airless’ the rest of Team Shaftesbury were smashing the triangular Suffolk course and taking names and prizes.

8 Shaftesbury riders took to the start line to stare down the heat, crosswinds, lumps and rapid descents ahead.

Debbie Coyle fired a warning shot ahead of next week’s Essex TT Championships shovelling watts into her pedals and winning the female road bike by 90 seconds, and over 2.5 minutes ahead of the reigning Essex Champion in third - hold the line caller that can’t be right, just checking… Nope, that’s right. Sheesh, girl got game.

Shaftesbury took gold in the Open Road Bike, Michael Stimson (on an actual road bike) curled into a foetal position only previously seen in 20 week sonograms, in first place - just the 25.5mph and four minutes clear! Shaftesbury also took third in the team completion.

Steve Murphy returned to racing, mustering more energy and power than could his failing Garmin, posting a super quick time 5 minutes ahead of Spindata prediction. Andrew Wenham and Paul Looke both outdid their predicted finishes too. All athletes too quick for an algorithm, literally faster than science!

It had to be explained to Ramsey Kechacha that the ‘double fire’ by his name on Spindata was about his cycling form and not his good looks (he wasn’t having it, and we can't blame him) - but he too beat their prediction with a top ten overall in a hotly contested and stacked field, and fastest Shaftesbury rider to boot.