Finish work at HUNT on Friday. European Masters Champion by Sunday.
You may recognise Simon McNamara's name if you've emailed us recently. He joined us a few months ago and has always worked tirelessly at delivering the highest quality of customer service possible. He's also a bit of a local legend in the race scene, having held either a Cat 1 or Cat 2 race license for no less than 10 years.
On Friday, as is traditional at The Rider Firm, we popped over to The Partridge after work for a beer or two in the sun. Si told us he was heading over to The Netherlands for 'a race' with some teammates from the local South Downs Bikes RT, and promptly pedalled home after his pint. Fast forward to Sunday, and he's the newly minted European Masters Champion. We're over the moon about it here at HUNT HQ, as it truly couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Well deserved, and certainly earned.
Here's what the main man himself had to say...
"I had a quick weekend away to The Netherlands with a couple of friends to compete in the WCF European Road Race Championships (basically road racing for old guys!) This is my 30th season racing!
We had recce’d the circuit the night before, and found that (true to popular beliefs) it was pancake flat, so not really my forte...
We were down to ride 11 laps of a 7.8km circuit, so it was probably going to be pretty quick. My game plan was to not let too big a group get up the road, and to keep myself in with a chance whilst not burning too many matches!
The race was fast and full on, with various groups escaping before being pulled back. A dangerous looking move had a 30 second gap, which I managed to bridge across to with 5 laps remaining (leaving 8 of us clear). The gap to the bunch wasn’t huge, and I knew that my only realistic chance of winning would be to get away on my own, so I made my move with 10 km to go. I was holding a 6 second gap at the bell, and into the exposed cross/headwind section I managed to settle into TT mode and pulled the gap out to 15 seconds. Into the last 3km with a tailwind and I was flying, the motorbike came up and told me that I had 30 seconds so I knew baring disaster I'd done it, into the finish and I could relax and put my hands in the air to take the win.
A great weekend of bike racing with a couple of Begiums finest beers to celebrate!"
See the wheels that helped Simon to win!