Quite a few results this week and we had Tina in her first Open TT, pretty sure she will get the "bug" for TTs. Some good results again, this has been an excellent season for SNCC. Great to see Simon Murphy back riding Opens and Paul Williamson has recovered from his crash at the Inter Club and "put a number" on his back.
Talking of the Inter Club last weekend's event at BRCC was a wash-out, the event will not be rearranged. Interesting to see Adam Williams doing 3 hill climbs (2 last weekend) it's a shame he's not around for the Inter Club this weekend. Talking of which, good luck to all members doing the Hill Climb this weekend either at the Inter Club or on the Club Run, 2 more trophies to be awarded for the men and ladies.
Sat 14th Sept Brickworks Hill Climb Cheshire Maverick CC J9/8 1.25 miles Adam Williams 22nd 7.12
Sun 15th Sept Curlew Cup Stamfordham Anastasia Bowler (St Piran WRT) 75 miles 48th (3.06 behind the winner) of 71 starters
Sun 15th Sept Cambridge CC F2c/25 Nic Pillinger 11th 51.55; Mark Greenhow 85th 62.18
Sun 15th Sept Hingham B10/19 Tina Dankwart 10th 29.17
Tina's Race Report - Newbie TT report
After the fun of the club time trial, and watching the nationals, I decided to give an open TT a go. Since I'm a bit late to it - the season is pretty much done I guess - there was really only one left that was close enough - the ECCA in Hingham. About an hour away.
Luckily I got a lot of advice from the TT-group (and I'm so glad I asked about where to sign on, I'd have gone to the start line and been lost!) - and so Sunday morning came along, and I was reasonably well prepared. Bottle cages removed, lights charged... conundrum of what to wear - it's COLD out there in the morning but then do you wear layers? would that get too warm? Settled on base layers and leg warmers.
I was getting a bit anxious about the rules (there seem to be a lot of things you are not supposed to do!) - let me just say though that the entry form and start sheet are a lot less friendly sounding than the actual people are! They were totally chilled out about riding back via the start line once finished (as it really is the only way to get back to HQ) and seemed amused (in a nice way) about my slight headless chicken behaviour (I did arrive before the organisers and was worried i might get lost...)
Anyway, it was well organised, and really everyone was friendly and encouraging. There were several people there who'd never ridden an open TT before, and several others on road bikes. Sadly only one other female rider (but she's FAST!)
It's a really nice course, especially for a newbie like me, as it's not dual carriageway but still more or less a 'there and back again' sort of line... Today was very windy on the way out (their comments not mine) and it's mostly flat (my comment not theirs - they seemed to think it's hilly - I suggest they try Abbo in comparison ;-) ). And although I came stone dead last - I'm pleased with my time. I've never done a 10 mile from stand still and so have no real comparison, my Abbo best 10 miles is 29:10, today was 29:17, so i'll take that. To be fair, I didn't feel very fast and realised too late that I should have burnt my matches on the way out (into the wind). I have a baseline, bring on next season!
Sat 21st Sept VTTA F2c/25 Nic Pillinger 3rd 52.50; Simon Murphy 19th 55.12; Paul Williamson 59th (3rd Road Bike) 64.16
Sat 21st Sept Halifax Imperial CC HC V9919 1 mile Adam Williams 12th 6.54
Sun 22nd Sept The Struggle L827 2.6 miles Adam Williams 29th 18.38
Sun 22nd Sept Greaen Cymru Gravel World Championship Qualifier 35 miles Pat Ellerbeck 4th in age group
Pat's Report
Sunday my first foray into Gravel racing at the Graean Cymru World Championship qualifier, fortunately us senior citizens got away with only doing 1 lap of 35 miles with 3000ft of climbing, so still pretty tough, really needed a film crew to capture my escapades, chain came off half way up a hill, so ran to the top, then shot past a right hand turn and continued for half a mile before I realised, also managed to fall of a couple of times, so pleased with my 4th position, only 6 Seconds off the podium. On reflection I think you need complete disregard for your safety if you dabble in Gravel racing, but I think I enjoyed it, on the plus side I won't have to go to Belgium for the finals as I failed to qualify by those 6 seconds. A good friend of mine who rode 2 laps, her first gravel race described it as an SAS assault course on a bike! A rather apt description with quite a number of casualties, I hit 37 mph on a downhill section and struggled to make the turn, handlebars juddering so much I had a job to work the brakes!