Paul Hopkins won tonight’s tt at Bruton, where some really good weather conditions led to a lot of quick times by the riders. Paul finished with 45.59, nearly two minutes ahead of championship leader Simon Barfoot (47.46, a pb time for Simon) and Vince Hounsome (47.53). Kim Little borrowed Josh Day’s tt bike to set a time of 48.38 with James Chant the final rider under 50 minutes with 49.06 after a couple of false starts. Chris Mullett set a course pb of 52.43, as did Julian Calloway (50.28) and Simon Whitehead (52.23).
Neil Mackinnon and Liam Teesdale both set fast times in the juniors’ section, Neil finishing 12 seconds ahead of Liam on 53.48. Barney Cox suffered for cramp early in his ride but still managed a 57.24.
Jane Pritchard was the quickest of the two lady riders, with Jenny Lucas’ time of 60.29 a pb for her.
Results here
Chris Mullett has also set another pb this week. On Sunday he rode at the Usk 25 mile tt in South Wales and knocked some two and a half minutes off of his previous best time with a 1.02.59. Don Tanner was just ahead of Chris on 1.02.17 and John Phillips did 1.10 07.
At the Chippenham Wheelers 10 mile tt on Saturday, Don and Chris actually tied with times of 25.45. Bath CC rider Rob Pears was the winner with 19.53.
Simon Barfoot and James Chant were in 25 mile tt action at the Bournemouth and District Women’s CA Open near Poole. Conditions were really good and Simon put in a really good ride with a 58.10, in spite of briefly going the wrong way. James finished with 60.42.
In the mountain bike scene, Nigel Brown was third at the recent Gorrick Enduro event. His finishing time was 4 hours 28 for the 50 mile event.
The Southern XC series continued on Sunday, with round three at Wasing Park near Reading. Paul Hopkins (riding for the Merida Factory team) had a mighty scrap for the lead against Lewis King (Beeline Cycles). Paul took the lead with 5 k to go and says that he sprinted form then on. He held on to win by just 5 seconds at the finish. Andy Parsons rode well on his new Scott for 13th, with Nigel Brown in 16th. Emma Bradley was fifth in the Elite Women’s race. The next round is at Crow near Ringwood on June 3rd.
