Rollapaluza Winter League 1 report

Rollapaluza's first foray into mid-week league racing was a huge success with 43 riders signing on in the function room of the White Hart in East London.

Rollapaluza gallery

The atmosphere was described as relaxed (well, they were in the pub) and friendly but with a definite competitive edge. There was certainly plenty of excitement with a cast of top roller racers in the house determined to keep their competitive edge honed over the Winter months. Among the notable racers giving it a go were:

Joe Wood. World Firefighters Roller-Race champion (pictured above).
Jason Cattermole: Previous Rollapaluza winner and former junior track champion
Simon Schmidt: Former South London roller league Vets champion.
and previous Rollapaluza winners: Charlene Duncan, Agata, Hillbilly, Matt Theobalds and the two Caspars.

There were also plenty of newcomers climbing on to the rollers and setting some super-fast times with some very close racing.

The ladies event was won by newcomer Rachel (above) who overcame London's most consistent Rollapaluza racer Agata.

In the Men's event Joe Wood was clearly the favourite, however any of the eight quarter finalists could have been a potential victor as they all set times under 21 seconds, probably the tightest competition, the organisers reckoned it was the tightest competition they'd ever seen.  However Joe played a tactical game throught the knockout rounds only putting in maximum effort when it was required and saving energy for the final in which he narrowly beat Jason Cattermole.

For more photos check out our Rollapaluza gallery,  and for full results and even more pics visit: www.rollapaluza.com/league