Paul Hopkins set a time of 45.00 to win the latest GDW tt, held in a strong breeze on the 19 mile Bruton course. Paul had left his pedals and shoes at home but was able to borrow replacements from James Chant – no doubt this will be the fastest James’ shoes will ever travel on a bike! Nigel Brown kept himself top of the championship points with second place with Kim Little putting in a good ride for third. Jay and Alex Hookins both set new pbs for the course while Mike Donovan and Rob Gale set their best times this season.
Jane Pritchard keeps getting quicker each week, lowering her pb to 53.29, to beat Emma Bradley who set her best time on the Bruton course this year.
Josh Day beat Barney Cox to be quickest junior, both set pbs, Barney knocking an incredible six minutes from his previous best.
Results here, times in brackets are split times to Hunter’s Lodge pub.
There were lots of Wheelers in action over last weekend in various events, though all had to ride in the horrible wind and rain that blighted the area on Sunday. The Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers/EDCA held a 10 mile Open tt on Sunday. The Poole bypass course would normally be a quick one but the conditions changed all that with both Simon Rouse and James Chant setting their slowest 10 mile times of the year. Simon was 12th with 25.46, James was 17th with 25.57. Ahead of them both was Vince Hounsome who set a time of 24.29 for 8th place. Vince is well placed in the overall series this year, while GDW has a tenuous grip on third in the team listings at the moment. There are plenty of events left in this series, if you fancy racking up a few points to help us beat CC Weymouth then take a look here
The National XC mountain bike series continued on Sunday, the races held at Wasing Estate near Reading. Paul Hopkins (racing for Merida UK) has been competing in the Elite races in the Southern XC series but went back to the Vets race for Wasing and took a clear win in the 5 lap race. Andy Parsons and Nigel Brown both went well in the same race, Andy in 15th with Nigel around thirty seconds further back in 18th. Emma Bradley (WXC Racing) just missed out on scoring UCI points in the Women’s Elite race, Emma coming home in 11th. Tom Brown competed in the juniors’ event, finishing 25th. Full results here
Rob Gale has been in good form in two recent triathlons, winning his age group category at both the Taunton and Wimborne races. At Wimborne on Sunday, Rob was 5th fastest in the 16.5 mile bike section despite a late puncture. A good run saw him win the 50+ age group and 13th overall. In the women’s event at Wimborne, Julie Hillier also won the 50+ age group following up her third at Taunton.
