Win for Paul at Flèche Waltonne

Hitting the top step with some early form

It was a longer than usual trip up to Leicestershire for Paul yesterday but he's a regular at the Flèche Waltonne event which, using quiet roads and a few segments of rougher stuff, has become a well established favourite with a spring classic feel amongst a select group of hardened 'specialists'.

Thankfully, the weather was a bit kinder than 2 years ago

"I really like the circuit," he explains. "It's demanding enough to get rid of any passengers. The sections of rougher surfaces are like mini climbs - that's where it starts to line out a bit."

By the finale, the main field had been whittled down to a pretty select bunch. Paul was careful not to be over confident and bided his time: "You have to time the sprint absolutely right," he continues. "As a group, we were all pretty closely matched so there wasn't much margin for error."

"He'd been looking fresh and dangerous all day," a fellow rider said afterwards. "It was a well deserved win."

Just time to raise the arms

Thanks to Paul Burgoine and velouk.net for the pic. More pics here and full result here