Lucas sets new 10-mile personal best at Godric 10

Velo Club Baracchi junior Lucas He underlined his credentials with a sizzling new personal best on Saturday in the Godric CC club time trial.

Riding in the 10-mile event on the A143 Bungay bypass from Earsham, Lucas bettered his previous ride on the same road by over a minute to win the event in a 20:28 personal best.

His father Alex He rode well and took third place.

Alex He (photo by Dominic Austrin)

The top ten times were Lucas He (VCB) 20:28, Paul Jay (Team Velo Velocity) 21:57, Alex He (VCB) 24:22, Graham Dilks (Norwich ABC) 24:37, Peter Johnson (NABC) 24:45, Tom Moore (GYCC) 24:45, Jo Walker (Godric CC) 26:47, Tracy Youngman (Rock Estate) 27:02, Jenny Anderson (GYCC) 27:08 and Barry Rogers (Bungay Black Dog RC) 27:17.

On the previous Tuesday in the Diss CC club 10 on the A143 from Billingford, Lucas He had ridden his second-best time of the year, 21:22, with his father Alex on 24:21.

The winner that night was Stuart Fairweather of Team Velo Velocity, with a new course record 20:46; two seconds off Mark Richards’ record of last year.

VCB veteran John Swanbury scraped into the nationally popular Lea Valley CC 25-mile open time trial on the “E2” dual carriageways course at Newmarket as a reserve.

There were 155 places in the event taken by riders from far and wide and fifteen reserves.  Swanbury was thirteenth reserve and was pleased to get a start late on.

With a warm southerly it seemed right for a good ride with a tailwind return but Swanbury found it particularly blustery and difficult going out and was timed in at 1-04:29.

The top five were David Langlands (Team Bottrill/Vanguard) 47:01, Stuart Travis, Team Bottrill/Vanguard) 47:16, Adam Duggleby (Vive Le Velo) 47:45, James Rix (Team Bottrill/Vanguard) 48:30 and Mark Jones, DRAG2ZERO 48:42.

The top three women were Alice Lethbridge (DRAG2ZERO) 51:03, Vicky Gill (DRAG2ZERO) 54:04 and Katja Rietdorf (Born to Bike – Bridgetown Cycles) 56:30.

Fairly local riders’ times included Simon Scott (Anglia Velo) 52:49, Chris Nudds (CC Breckland) 56:19 and Nick Esser (Dap CC) 59:01

In New Zealand, VCB expat member Tim Cowan (aged in his mid-forties) rode in an Xterra 26km MTB event in Rotorua and was pleased with 20^th place out of 147 finishers, which he modestly described as “not bad for an old roadie.”

In contrast to all this racing, John Thompson reported on a pleasant country ride to Peasenhall, Saxtead and Laxfield, taking in some 65 miles including some new ground resulting from a navigational error in the lanes.