Hot on the heels of James Chant getting under the hour in a 25 mile tt for the first time, three more Wheelers managed to break the 60 minute barrier this weekend. The fastest of them was Charles Rees, who, like James last week, had to contend with the same lengthened Ashton Keynes course at the Chippenham Wheelers Open. Conditions were really good again though and Charles covered the 25.4 miles in 55.31 for 16th place, knocking over three minutes off of his pb time from a couple of years ago.
Simon Rouse travelled over to South Wales for the second time in a week for the Cardiff RC Open 25 at Usk, finishing with a time of 59.34. Alan Smith also did well with 1.02.54.
Finally, Julian Chown got under the hour at his very first attempt at the Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers Open, held on the Poole bypass. Julian finished 21st with a time of 59.04.
Full results of these events can be found here
Charles Rees won the final round of the Heath Road Race series last week. This was held in pretty awful weather on roads around the New Forest. Charles attacked from the gun and maintained his lead right through to the finish. The overall series winner was Somer Valley CC’s Robbie Edgell.
Paul Hopkins put in a great ride in the 3rd Cat race at the recent Guildford town centre crit. Paul, riding for Merida UK, won each of the prime prizes en route to outsprinting his breakaway partner at the finish to win the race. Report and photos here
At last week’s Castle Combe 3rd Cat race, James Gray instigated a breakaway move, and, unusually, the group managed to stay away from the pack until the end, where James came in 7th.
The Southern XC mountain bike series continued at the weekend, held on a new course near Tidworth which gained rave reviews from those who took part. Paul Hopkins (Merida UK) continued competing in with the Elites in the SXC series, finishing 12th, less than 6 minutes behind the winner after nearly two hours of racing.
Emma Bradley (WXC) had a lengthy stop due to getting stung on her way to 5th in the Elite women’s race. In the juniors’ race Josh Day was 11th and Tom Brown 13th, while Kim Little was 16th in the Masters race.
Andy Parsons and Nigel Brown both competed in the Vets race, Andy was 11th about two minutes ahead of Nigel in 16th.