The 11.2 mile Abbotsley course was once again host to the 19 week 2013 Time Trial season for St Neots Cycling Club.  As always the course was challenging and demanding and it was great to see 69 members testing themselves on Thursday evenings in all conditions and weathers. 

As you will see below the popularity of the event has increased year on year and it is great to see that so many members and guests are prepared to test themselves against the clock. A few members, we know, having being cajoled into taking part are now committed devotees of this event and are spreading the word far and wide.

The TTs only work because of the commitment and time dedicated by our Timekeepers and for 2013 a very large thank you to John Brysdon and Colin Mullins . This was Colin’s first year on the clock and he proved an able apprentice to John in learning the dark arts of our handicap system and he has volunteered again for 2014.

John , regrettably , has decided to hand back his stopwatches and wants to spend more time on his bike but we have no doubt he will still be coming over some evenings to see how we are getting on.  Our thanks to John for persevering for all the years when there was maybe only three or four riders turning up for the TT and also for his immaculate recording keeping of all the results.

We welcome Mandy McEvoy , Andy’s wife, as the new apprentice timekeeper for 2014 and she tells us that she is actually looking forward to the experience !! Many thanks to Mandy for volunteering and giving up her Thursday evenings for the Club. 

2013  was another interesting season:

•    102  riders took part over the season  - 69  members and 33 guests  with some notable performances including :

• Andy Holt taking over 3 minutes from his opening time of 38. 30 and also putting himself in contention for the Handicap Trophy in his first season
• Jon Keefe who did all 19 TTs and led the Handicap Trophy table until the last evening
• Gareth Smith who opened the season with a 33.14 and pushed under the 30 minute mark for the second half of the season consistently which was enough to win the Handicap Trophy and secure a PB of 29.21
• Simon Richardson started with a 34.33 and ended with a PB of 29.54 an improvement of almost 5 minutes over the season .
• Mark Greenhow went from a 33.04 to 29.42 over the season
• Ian Turner , Richard Hancock , Tom Stead and Chris Ritchie were all threatening the 25 minute time with Ian closest on 25.15 . Who will get under 25 minutes this season and threaten the course record of 24.53 ?
• Leon Bradford at 72 continues to push a mean pedal and impress with 17 TTs and a best time for the season of 32.55
• 11 female riders  participated and considering that 2 years ago there were none we hope that this trend will continue. Lucy Bush posted the best time of 32.41.
• Geoff Smith came back from his winter training inFranceto post a series of sub 30 minutes including a 27.37 , not a bad benchmark for a 68 year old !!
• Darren Preston in his first season with us delivered 10 sub 30 minute times with a PB of 27.17
• Ade Taverna almost had the perfect set as well until suffering a puncture one evening
• Delighted to see “old friends” of the Club taking part as guests – Dom Whitehead , Karl Hiner , Kevin Stokes , Stephen Halsall , Ian Stokes and Mick Watts who turned up on the last evening.
• Congratulations to those who went under the 30 minute barrier for the first time

Handicap Trophy

The key to winning the Handicap trophy is to be consistent with your times and to keep improving through the season and also to hope that when you have a good time that there is a large field so that you are able to claim a large number of points for that evening.

Mr Consistency was Jon Keefe who kept his wheel in front for almost all the season until hauled back by Gareth Smith who maintained a steady improvement allowing him to overtake Jon at the end of the season. Also in contention were Simon Richardson , Andy Holt and Ade Taverna .

Congratulations to Gareth and good luck to all riders for the 2014 season .

Personal Bests and Starting Handicap Times for 2014

For the Handicap trophy the club uses 25 minutes as the base time for the 11.2 mile circuit. Points are awarded on the basis of how many members take part in each TT. So if 25 riders and 5 are guests then there are 20 points on offer that count towards the Handicap trophy .

If you have a current Handicap of say 7 minutes and your actual time on the night is 31 minutes then your Handicap time is 24 minutes and if this is the best Handicap time in the evening you would pick up 20 points and so down to 1 point for the rider with the slowest handicap time.

For this person their Handicap time for the following week would now be 6 minutes ( 31 less 25) and 6 minutes would be deducted from their actual time and not 7 minutes .

Below is a list of current PBs and Starting Handicap Times for 2014 .