Peterborough Cycling Club's Ian Wild has secured victory in the Northants Cycle Racing Association road race series, for the 4th time in his career. The Deeping man took his 1st victory back in 1990 and repeated the feat in 1993 and 1997 before winning again last week. Wild was the victor in the first round of the evening series this year and as such was forced to lead out the bunch sprint in a rain soaked 30 mile 2nd round. Unfortunately 2 riders came passed, but Wild managed to hang on for 3rd spot and keep himself in contention for the overall. The 3rd round saw a very different race as Ian Wild and the others from his group failed to catch the early starters and therefore did not take any points. However it was still good news for Peterborough CC as Brett Harwood, starting from the back, passed all but one rider to take an excellent 2nd place and also put himself in contention overall. The final round was a very tactical race, with several riders still able to win the series overall, it would take more that just speed and strength to win, but also good tactics and a fair bit of maths! If Harwood could catch up to Wild's group there was a very good possibility of a Peterborough 1 - 2. Wild has been in this situation before and knew his best chance was in a bunch sprint and played out his tactics perfectly. As the leading groups came together in the final few miles and the scratch group failed to make up the ground, Wild found himself boxed in. His experience showed, however, as he managed to find his way out, passing all but 1 rider in the closing 200 metres to take second on the day and victory overall. Brett Harwood took 6th overall with John French, John Powell, Zed Dhanji and Manuel Santa Cruz all helping out the team mates of the 4 events to make it a great success for Peterborough CC.

Ian Wild