Time trial season nearly here

At this stage of the year it is hard to imagine the time trial season is just around the corner, but it is, and there have already been one East Anglian event.

Chris Womack

Chris Womack of Velo Club Baracchi plans an early start, with entries in already for three open events in March, beginning with the CC Breckland 10-mile event on March 7.

Meanwhile, Joe Skipper, riding for Rock Estate, won the Ely & District CC “Hardriders” 25 in early February with a short 56-minute ride, achieved after some training in Tenerife.

The VCB club run on Sunday attracted four riders and two of them, George Kerridge and Nicki Hawkes, put in the miles on a ride to Framlingham. Mark Richards and Shaun Davey went a shorter distance.

The “Wrinklies” rides on Tuesdays and Fridays for any local riders who want to take part have been at 10am this month in case of bad weather but in March they revert to 9am from Carlton Colville church. There were ten riders out this Tuesday.

The Wrinklies

John Thompson was unable to get out last weekend but a week earlier he rode the Stowmarket and District CC 100-km reliability trial.

They had two groups, one supposed to average 16mph and the other 19mph and Thompson was in the first.

He stayed with the bunch for a few miles but lost contact on a hill and his problems began.

It was a complicated route so riding it for the first time meant a lot of route sheet checks. It was more like riding an audax in many ways, particularly the nature of some of the lanes. He came across three riders stopped at a junction and assumed they were checking their route sheets.

Thompson rode in with them but eventually it became apparent that there were none of them had route sheets or really knew the way, perhaps not expecting to be dropped. The group proceeded but by the time Thompson checked his own route sheet it was apparent that they had gone wrong.

One of them really struggled on the hills and one of them punctured. After a while, with Thompson setting the pace, he looked round and saw they weren’t there, perhaps looking after the struggler.

Having wasted a lot of time trying to ride with the others Thompson pressed on and completed the event in 5.5 hours for the 62.46 miles that he measured, arriving when all the pasta had gone and all the helpers had packed up and gone home.

He said, “Despite that slight frustration it was a lovely ride. The route went first to Stowmarket and then Onehouse, Rattlesden and through lanes to Bildeston, then Hadleigh, through East Bergholt and Constable country to Brantham, just north of Manningtree, then Hollesley to skirt Ipswich via Belstead, Copdock, Sproughton and Bramford back to Needham Market.”

It was a testing ride, with some steep hills, particularly in the Stour valley.