Dennington rides well on Bressingham course

On Sunday some early rain at the start of the Diss CC open 25 on the A1066 from Bressingham to the Thetford roundabout and back soon stopped and became a good morning for the event.

Paul Dennington was the quickest Velo Club Baracchi solo rider with 59:16, just ahead of the VCB tandem pair, John Swanbury and Ali Banks, with 59:42. John Thompson achieved 1-15:45 and Richard Allen 1-16:39.

The tandem duo

The top three were Andrew Leggett (Team VeloVelocity) 55:46, Steve Gorbutt (Diss CC) 56:11 and Simon Daw (Velo Schils Interbike) 56:39. Verity Smith of Stowmarket & District CC was the fastest lady with 1-03:24. Ten of the 54 riders did not start, perhaps put off by the rain that was forecast.

Dennington

Dennington achieved 21:34 in Wednesday’s Anglia Velo open 10 last week on the A143 from Earsham but was disappointed with the circumstances.

He was overtaken very slowly by a large tractor and trailer, but managed to fight his way back past it, as he needed to go faster and certainly did not want to slipstream it. However the tractor then clawed its way past again before turning off shortly afterwards.

It was not Dennington’s fault and he reported his problem to the event organiser, but was reassured that there was nothing he could have done, so his result stood. Dennington said, “It spoilt my ride.”

Other VCB times were Mark Richards 22:30, James Moore 23:14, Chris Womack 24:28, Banks 25:13, Swanbury 25:18 and John Thompson 28:23.

Richards

Moore

Chris Womack

Swanbury and Banks had also ridden the tandem at the start of proceedings, recording a personal best time of 22:25.

Swanbury and Banks

Daniel Bloy of Team VeloVelocity won with 20:37 from club-mate Lawrence Wright in 21:23 and Charles Nurse of North Norfolk Wheelers, third with 21:25. There were just over 40 riders.

At the Gt Yarmouth CC club 8.25-mile time trial from Lound, VCB times were Dennington 20:04 (third place in a field of 17), Chris Womack 21:25 and Mark Womack 22:51. Harley Matthews of the home club won in 19:00.

Richards was one of the riders taking part the street velodrome event in Lowestoft. He said, “It was a great experience, I finished fourth behind three of the pros on the tour. There was loads of support from all the spectators. A few of the competitors, including me, fell on the steep banked turns. It was found to be a great way to remove skin!”

Kate Churchill rode the Round Norfolk Epic 200-mile sportive from Great Yarmouth. The route was to Beccles, Harleston, and Diss and along the A1066 before turning off to the Lophams, but not before coincidentally she saw the VCB tandem pair “in full flight” in the Diss event.

The sportive riders then turned off to South Lopham for a lanes route to Diss and continued west into the Fens, nearly to Wisbech and north to King’s Lynn and Hunstanton, then west to follow the North Norfolk Coast all the way back to Great Yarmouth. There was a very strong tail-wind along the coast and the last 80 miles were extremely fast. Churchill said, “I finished just after 6.30pm giving a time of 12 hours and 30 minutes for the 200 miles so I was well pleased with that!”