Dennington and Womack earn well-deserved prizes at CCB New Year 10

Paul Dennington of Velo Club Baracchi repeated his performance of last year in the CC Breckland open 10-mile time trial on New Year’s Day, but on an entirely higher level.

It reflected his huge improvements of the last season and clearly he has lost little of the fitness he gained.

Paul Denninton on roundabout turn

Last year Dennington’s time was 23:37 and he was the fastest VCB rider. This year he was the fastest in the club yet again, a minute and a half quicker with 22:03.

This was actually the third-fastest time in the event but Dennington instead won the top veteran prize of £25 for beating his veteran age standard by a “plus” of +4:42.

Liam Gentry in previous team kit

Dennington was just a little quicker than Liam Gentry (22:13) so it was Gentry who stepped up to take the honour of third place on scratch, though sadly there was no prize money for this.

Chris Womack

Mark “Titch” Richards had a sound 23:24 ride for 11^th place and Chris Womack picked up the third veteran prize of £15 with +3:45 on veteran age standard from his 24:57 scratch result.

Titch Richards

John Swanbury’s time was 26:33, just nine seconds slower than last year.

John Swanbury

The weather on the A11 south of Wymondham was not totally unkind as the outward leg was mostly wind-assisted and on the return there was a little shelter in places.

Womack on the roundabout

The winner was Mark Arnold of CC Desiragear in 20:53, from Paul Jay of Team VeloVelocity with 21:42, which was quicker than his ride of last year.

The organiser, Julian Farrall of CC Breckland said of Arnold that he was “not only the fastest competitor but he rode a fixed-wheel bike and marked his entry into the veterans’ field with about 40 seconds less than he took to win two years ago.”

Dennington

Chris Nudds of CC Breckland was the second veteran on standard and Team VeloVelocity won the team prize for the total times off the fastest three, Geoff Frost, Andrey Leggett and Paul Jay.

The organiser summed it up by saying, “Weather conditions were largely as one should expect on New Year’s Day, about 8°C, gloomy and with a SW wind of about 20 mph; not for the faint-hearted but still leading to a significantly lower winning time than last year.”

Swanbury on the slip road at the turn (thanks to Mark Carroll and Fergus Muir for photos)

John Dupen had been entered for VCB but has now accepted an invitation to ride for Anglia Velo and chose not to start.

Twenty-seven of the thirty-one who had entered finished the event. A puncture prevented one of CC Breckland’s prominent riders, Declan Davis, from finishing.

Frost and ice on Sunday limited cycling activities and the East Anglian CC reliability ride was cancelled.

The VC Baracchi 50-mile reliability ride organised by John Thompson is scheduled for this Sunday, January 11 from Oulton Community Centre, Gorleston Road. Start times as follows: 4 hours at 8.30am, 3.5 hours 9am, 3 hours 9.30am.