With his sights firmly set on both the National Grass Track Short Distance and Endurance Competitions Phil Lisher has been concentrating on this discipline during the middle section of the season. His weekend got off to a bad start when a sudden concertina effect in the bunch during the 10 Mile Scratch at Welwyn Track on the Friday evening, saw a member of Cambridge CC hit the deck rather hard, with Phil catching his bike and somersaulting to a halt on the tarmac, with multiple abrasions resulting.
Fortunately he had a full 24 hours to recover before the Brentwood round of the Short Distance and Endurance Series - luxury!
Taking the chance to enter some Freewheeler Races Phil's sister and fellow Team Welwyn member Phoebe Lisher showed a fine turn of speed but found the variable and strong wind hard going on her mountain bike but still finished in second place in three out of the four events on offer.
George Bateman was in action in the Youth Omnium but had to give best to Alan Trolove, who rides for West Suffolk Wheelers but is a second claim member of Team Welwyn and has coaching assistance from the team. Alan was in superb form and in spite of having to tape his feet to the pedals due to a cleat failure was unstoppable throughout.
In the senior racing the first event to be contested was a Devil with Phil in second spot behind John McClelland. In the Short Distance (500M) event Phil went smoothly through the heats to take the line in the semi-final, at this stage events became decidedly bizarre with an attack by Tim Snook closely covered by Phil with the rest of the field some distance off the back after the bell and the two places in the final therefore looking like a foregone conclusion. The weather had other ideas - a mini-whirlwind approached the track as the riders exited turn two, picked up Tim and Phil, whirled them round a bit and unceremoniously dumped them on the ground before heading off to break through the safety tape at turn three. Fortunately new injuries were minimal but coming on top of Phil's Friday abrasions the crash was far from ideal.
A re-run saw Phil and Tim both safely through to the final where the adrenaline generated by hitting the deck twice in three days saw Phil take a convincing win ahead of McClelland.
In the subsequent 8km the adrenaline was clearly running a bit lower and Phil could manage only fourth place behind Bryan Taylor, winner of the Endurance Series in 2009.
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