Sunday saw the Glendene Cycling Club promote its annual road race, 'The Hell of the Ends', one of a series of races for second, third and fourth category riders that make up the Essex Road Race League.

The 58 starters looked forward to a race of 88 miles, which covered seven laps of a 13 mile circuit.

The race started at Great Saling and was sponsored by the White Hart Public House in the village.

Glendene's Tony Couchman was soon in action when he, Lee Slater (Cambridge CC) and Dave Young (Crest CC) broke away on the first lap, and they quickly established a lead of one minute.

During their escape Slater took the Sprint's Prize at the end of the second lap.

After a series of counter attacks they were eventually reeled in towards the end of the third lap, having been on their own for 75 minutes.

With the riders all together, Robert Wright (Shaftesbury CC) took the prize for crossing the line first at the end of the third lap.

Early on in the fourth lap, the promoting club's Ben Nicholson broke away on his own.

A series of counter attacks during this lap saw another eight riders escape and by the time they crossed the finish line for the fourth time, all nine escapees were together.

This group worked diligently to ensure that they stayed away in the hot and sunny conditions.

This breakaway proved to be the winning move, and although these nine riders were never seen again by the main brunch, their lead was never more than a minute.

Clive Richardson (Harlow CC) won the primes at the end of the fourth, fifth and sixth laps.

On the final circuit, Marcus Paul (Heff's Bike Shop) escaped on his own, the other riders could not get organised and he hung on to be a worthy winner.

He crossed the line having covered the 88 miles in three hours, 25 minutes, 24 seconds.

The other eight breakaways crossed the line 26 seconds later with Patrick Harboard (VC Barracchi) winning the sprint.

Ian Samuel (Crest CC) who many thought was the days most aggressive rider, crossed the line in third place.

Of the other riders away, Ben Nicholson crossed the line in eighth place at the same time as Harbord.

Clive Richardson, who was the first veteran (over 40 years) to finish, suffered for his previous successes on earlier laps and finished a further eight seconds down.

Vince Devine (Whitewebbs CC) led the main bunch in, and won the sprint to take tenth overall.

Devine still maintains his lead in the league, having won three races earlier in the year.

Other Glenedeners placed were Dan Fentiman (12th), who also won the prize for best fourth category rider, Murat Ozdenya (16th) and Brett Travers (17th).

Leader of the pack . . the following group keep an eye on the leader during Sunday's 'Hell of the Ends' race, which was hosted by the Glendene Cycling Club.

Picture: ROBERT BROWNE

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.