Charles Rees has been maintaining his form over the last week with another improvement in his 10 mile tt time.  At the Antelope RT Open in Poole he got his time down to 21.12 and is now determined to break into the 20s.  Andy Hopkins, Vince Hounsome and Chris Mullett all also managed to get new pbs on what was obviously a fast day.  Andy did 21.45, Vince 21.48 and Chris 25.36 – well done! 

Charles, James Chant, Will Edwards and Sarah Roberts had a go at the Yeovil CC club 10 on Thursday, with Charles posting the fastest time of the evening.  His winning time of 22.04 was a course best for him, as was James’ 24.18 despite the longer outward leg being very hard against a strong wind and both being squeezed right up to the roadside kerb by a tractor.  Sarah and Will struggled in the conditions and recorded 30.35 and 28.12 respectively.

The Bournemouth and District Women’s CA held their annual 2-up for male/female pairings recently’ run on the P303 course South of Ringwood.  Sarah and James had a scary moment when a car pulled out right in front of them and they had to take some avoiding action but they finished in 13th place with a time of 29.15.  They had another go at Somer Valley CC’s club 10 and, despite Rob Pears from Bath CC causing them some confusion by warming up on course after the event had started, did much better with a time of 26.49.

Sarah and James also took part in North Hampshire RC’s Open 25 on Saturday near Farnham.  Both did ok on a rolling course on a windy day, Sarah coming home in 1.14.20 and James in 1.02.14 after a lurid, tail-out slide to a stop at one of the roundabouts.

James, Charles and Will Edwards travelled to Upavon Airfield on Monday, hoping for better luck than the previous week’s 3rd/4th Cat race.  Unfortunately, Charles had his rear wheel assaulted by another rider’s handlebars after a crash on the final lap and didn’t get to finish while James exhausted himself leading out for Charles on what he thought was the last lap but there were in fact two laps still left to run.  Will pulled out with a lap to go after getting dropped but somehow the race officials thought that he had solo-ed round to victory well clear of the field and presented him with flowers and cheque on the top step of the podium!  Will pointed out their mistake after having his moment of glory and had to hand his ‘winnings’ back, but it was good while it lasted.  Will’s opinion of the lack of attractiveness of the podium girl is probably best not recorded in print.