Womack consistently up on his times of last year

Chris Womack of Velo Club Baracchi continued his spring campaign with a strong ride in the Stowmarket & District CC open 20-mile time trial.

It was staged on a “very sporting” course, the Winston-Pattaugh-Ashfield-Occold-Debenham circuit and was as challenging as they come.

Nearly 50 riders finished and veteran rider Womack was 23^rd with a time of 51:36.  Yet again (for the sixth time in the year) he was faster than in last year’s equivalent event, this time by one minute and fifty-eight seconds.

He said, “The weather was sunny and dry with a strong south west wind.  As the course is a circuit the wind made some sections very tough in places.”

Local rider Paul Hayward of Rock Estate was 35^th with 54:49.

Mark Arnold of CC Desiragear won with a new course record by 11 seconds, 43:41.  The previous record had been set in 2007 by the home club’s Lee Bark.

Second was James Trenchard  of Godric CC in 45:23 and there was a tie for third place between Steve Gorbutt of Didd CC and Jack Sears of Stowmarket in 46:23.

An unfortunate mishap occurred to the most senior veteran of the day, Peter Baumber (86 years old) of Cambridge CC, who came off on some tricky downhill bends near the finish and was hospitalised for a day or so with a broken left collarbone, three broken ribs and a punctured lung.

Recent publicity has boosted the advance entries for the Beccles Cycle for Life charity ride on May 11 into three figures, with a month to go.  Last year’s total, including those who paid a bit more to enter on the day, was not far short of 500 riders.

Details and entry forms, as well as the link to optional on-line entry through Virgin Money Giving is on www.becclescycleforlife.org and there is also a Facebook page.

The Tuesday and Friday rides at 9am from Carlton Colville church organised by the Over the Hill Gang (the Wrinklies) seem to be very popular, not only with club riders but also some who choose not to belong to a formal club.

With the better weather the distances have crept up to between 40 and 50 miles and there are seldom less than eight riders.  A café stop on the return is a permanent feature of the ride.

Last week one of the rides was at an average speed of just over 17mph but this was unusually fast.  Riders are welcome to come and give these rides a try, work permitting.

The VCB club rides are at 8.30am from the Cotmer Road roundabout and are potentially a little faster, though usually the first section, which is invariably to Halesworth, is likely to be fairly steady. 

The next event entered by a good many VCB members is the Good Friday Gt Yarmouth CC open 10 on the A143 from the Wortwell village hall headquarters.