Amazing scenes of celebration!!
 
People were dancing in the streets. Car horns blared late into the night. Fireworks were set off and there were even occasional bursts of celebratory gunfire. Great swathes of people sang songs in the name of their hero - Richard Rye!! This was........ Blackrock!!

In Algiers there was some celebration too.

Meanwhile a lone firework was seen in Vancouver, Canada as Nicky Kearns celebrated his only 5 pointer of the first round. This meant so much more to him than having cycled close to 400km in one day for charity and helping to raise more than CAN$500,000

And yes, it is official. Richard Rye has held on to the lead he took, and never relinquished, on the 15th June. 

There were some nervous moments along the way none more than yesterday when Thijs DeBont got to within 4 points. And Thijs did hold his own little celebration party at not having had his sister Jude finish ahead of him.

It is worth noting a few other achievements of the competition:

• After a disastrous start, Joe Kearns coming from bottom of the table to finish in 7th only 11.5 points off the lead
• Leah Cassidy, the World Cup 2010 overall winner, finishing only 10.5 points off the lead with Round 2 to come. Can she retain her title?
• Josh Lease. What can we say?  A quite amazing performance for one who failed so dismally in the past. 
• Another perennial struggler,Thijs DeBont, finally came good and nearly won this first round. He will certainly compete for the overall title.
• Jude DeBont of course nearly caused the shock  of the tournament - at least for Thijs.
• Conor Ralph a newcomer to the competition finishing second only 3 points behind Richard Rye 

 So congratulations to Richard Rye. Let Round 2 commence! Get those predictions in!