Double win at 20th Green Belt Relay

This year was the 20th edition of the Green Belt Relay and for the first time there was a fully sold-out field of 40 teams, which made for some great racing

Picture from Double win at 20th Green Belt Relay

Our men's team won the race by 32 minutes ahead of London Frontrunners, who put up a great fight, knocking an hour off their time from 2015, only to come up against a Serpentine team who finished 1 hour 17 minutes faster than they did in 2015! Our women's team won the women's trophy and also took the Queens of the Mountains title, with our men also taking Kings of the Mountains to add to their overall victory.

Our mixed team (listed as a men's team, as it included less than 2 women) finished in an excellent 13th position overall, just one place and 8 minutes ahead of our vets team.

From Hampton Court to Ham the long way round in 22 stages, we picked up 10 stage-winner t-shirts:

  • Simon Barrett on stage 2
  • John Nugus on stage 3
  • Sam Ludlow-Taylor on stage 5, who also took stage 18 for a double stage win weekend
  • Bart Porzuczek on stage 10, in a thrilling sprint to the line, showing that middle distance track speed pays off
  • Andy Reeves on stage 11
  • Hugh Torry on stage 12
  • Sarah Knox on stage 16
  • Jonathan Bradford on stage 18, which is notable for having all four Serpies in the top 10, with Simon Buckley 2nd, Sam Ludlow-Taylor 6th and Stephane Schneider 10th in addition to Jonathan's 1st place
  • David Evans on stage 20.

Very many thanks to all of our drivers for all of their hard work in getting people to stages and marshall points on time, not to mention racing as well. Thank you Nicola Anderson, Simon Buckley, Nick Fairclough, Jerry Lockspeiser, Ian Hodge, Sally Hodge, Hugh Torry and David Wilkes - without you we couldn't have taken part.

There were lots of tired Serpies at the finish at the Hawker Centre, but many said how much fun they had had over the weekend, which is what it's all about. If you were there and had a good time, do tell your Serpie friends so they know to sign up next year!

Full results are at www.greenbeltrelay.org.uk

There are lots of photos from the weekend on the Serpies Facebook group.

Ian Hodge
Green Belt Team Captain
ihodge@serpentine.org.uk

Submitted: 23 May 2016

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