New winter, new (very slightly amended) rules, new opportunities.
When it’s a bit chilly many Wheelers choose to stay indoors and create puddles of sweat below their trusty steed as type-2 kind of fun. At least there is a safe and consistent environment both on the bike and on the screen. Others prefer to battle the outdoors year-round. In the first week of the 2024/25 GDW Winter Challenge 9 stayed inside whilst 6 had other plans.
First off the mark on the 16k course was James Little with a12 month PB just ducking under the 22 minutes. His lead lasted only a couple of days when Shawn Gray took 63 seconds off the time. Winter Challenge debutants Geoff Percival and Henry Harris then recorded very similar times. Henry rode a great flat west-to-east route outside on Thursday. If only he’d waited until Saturday….
Speaking of which, Rob Gale spotted an opportunity. The wind was WNW so he picked a WNW flat route towards Glastonbury on Saturday. (On Sunday Michael Sleeman did a following/cross-wind course and Melanie Birch admirably did a loop).
The rule change this year was a 20% discount applied to outside times. The rules panel couldn’t have anticipated such helpful (and dangerous) one-off conditions, but Michael and Rob have certainly benefitted. (Innes Wright also rode outdoors on Saturday but as it was flat, on a TT bike and 18,000km away then no discount was applied)
So where does it leave us. Melanie is the female lead whilst Michael just sneaked ahead of Shawn with Rich White nudging Chris Giles off the podium. Full results can be found here (from row 55) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xObuEB3punf3SXStfRJ0YH_nUdgBMlL6CGpRbg90qIY/edit?usp=sharing
A total of 15 riders (18% of the GDW members) took the first step in the Winter Challenge, but its not too late to give it a go – the next one is a 5k run (or walk) in the week commencing 16 December. Good luck
