Kerridge is VCB 50 champion; Chris Womack’s super new personal best

George Kerridge became the Velo Club Baracchi 50-mile champion with a competent 2-10:08 ride in the Godric CC 50-mile open time trial on the A11 on Sunday.

 

Nicki Hawkes, riding for Team VeloVelocity.co.uk but also a VCB second-claim member, won the East District Cycling Association ladies’ championship in the same event with a 2-15:53 ride, beating Sally Withey of VC Norwich (2-16:39) into second place and Jenny Anderson (Gt Yarmouth CC) into third with 2-21:07. 

Kerridge’s true opposition should have been Mark Newnham, but he has been going through a difficult patch and pulled out after 10 miles.  John Swanbury of VCB finished with 2-16:15. 

Some superb times were ridden on a warm morning with a gently rising breeze and foremost was the new district champion Daniel Bloy of King’s Lynn CC with the winning 1-47:34 from Barry Charlton of Swinnerton Lyme RC (1-48:25) and Charlie Nurse of North Norfolk Wheelers (1-53:08). 

On Saturday Chris Womack of VCB set a remarkable new 25-mile personal best of 58:35 at age 66, lopping a minute and a half off his previous best. 

He was riding in the VTTA East event on the A14 and A11 roads fromNewmarket, turning atFour Went Ways. 

He said, “The weather was dry, sunny, a bit breezy but warm with the temperature of 19C that made a change” and these conditions obviously helped him draw out his very best performance. 

He added, “Conditions were harder going into the breeze. I struggled to keep the speed between 23 and 24mph but came out of the turn at 13 miles with a time of 31 minutes and 30 seconds only to find the return leg pretty fast as long as I put the effort to keep the speed up, which improved on average all the way back, climbing first to 25mph then 25.1, 25.2 and so on, finishing with 25.6mph. 

Kevin Tye of VeloRefined Aerosmiths was fastest with 48:51, from Trevor Burke of Finchley Racing Team with 50:18 and Dave Green of RAF CC with 50:30. 

The fastest woman was Suzy Robinson of VC10 with 55:29. 

On the previous Tuesday evening in the Godric CC club 25-mile time trial along the Bungay by-pass course the VCB times were Chris Womack 1-04:06, John Swanbury 1-04:31, Mark Womack 1-08:16 and Richard Allen 1-16:39. 

There was a close contest between the three fastest, Will Bamber of VC Norwich (56:45), nineteen-year-old Harley Matthews of Strada Sport (57:02) and Richard Dunnett of Diss & District CC (57:03).