The weekend’s wet and windy weather played havoc with much of the scheduled time trialling programme with events cancelled and long lists of non-starters.
Heavy rain made some courses dangerous, the Hampshire RC’s `10`, the Ogmore Valley Wheelers `25` and the Colchester Rovers `50`were all cancelled for safety reasons. “Excessive surface water on many sections of the course covered the potholes,” explained Colchester Rovers organiser Tony Asplin.
Sunday’s Beacon RC 39-mile Little Mountain TT had more non-starters than starters but some 50 riders braved the elements and victory went to Dean Robson (Somerset RC) with 1-45-52 ahead of Arctic-SRAM RT’s Danny Axford, 1-51-08, and Matt Clinton (Mike Vaughan.co.uk), 1-52-43.
Best of the women was Stacey Penn (Team Jewson-MI Racing) who beat Louise Robinson (Islabikes) by just nine seconds with her 2-20-03. (A fuller report can be seen on the results page).
The Teesdale CRC 40.5-mile event saw Jon Sturman (Blumilk.com), 1-53-38, beat 2011 winner Joel Wainman (Team Swift), 1-55-45. Richard Meadows (Velo 29) claimed third place with 1-56-12 ahead of Andy Wilkinson (Port Sunlight Wheelers), 1-57-20. Jessie Roberts (Hambledo RC), an event regular since 2004 was fastest of the women with a 2-26-31.
Ian Stott (Blackburn & District CTC) took the Wigan Wheelers `30`, a 1-07-23 giving him 45 seconds beating of Paul Fleming (Preston Wheelers) with Paul Greenhalgh (Manchester Wheelers) at a further 1-27. Sue Cheetam (North Lancs RC) was first woman with her 1-28-47.
On Saturday Philip Graves (Clifton CC) followed up his second place in last week’s RTTC-Rudy Project event with a win in the Birdwell Wheelers `25`. Graves 53-05 was just seven seconds better than Alastair Wareham (Team Swift) managed. Kevin Dawson (Strategic Lions) clocked 54-00 for third while Alex Deck (RST-Trigon) returned a 1-05-36 as best woman.
Team Milton Keynes 15-mile time trial went to Richard Moore (London Phoenix CC), a 33-18 putting him 14 seconds ahead of Michael Broadwith (Shorter Rochford RT).
Rob Pears (Bath CC) just failed to win his own club’s open`10` on Saturday. Victor was Jeff Jones (drag2zero) with 20-22 to Pears 20-29. Northover Vets Jon Wynn rode to third with a 20-48. A 29-12 gave Aileen Brown of the promoting club the woman’s award.