Dupen’s excellent new personal best

John Dupen of Velo Club Baracchi made a pilgrimage to the Team Swift middle-markers’ 10-mile time trial on the A63 road west of Hull in a quest for a fast ride and was rewarded by a lifetime personal best time of 21:18.

His ride put him in seventh place out of 77 finishers and was a VCB veteran record of +6:14 (i.e. better than his veteran standard time by six minutes and fourteen seconds).

His son-in-law Simon Scott of Anglia Velo took third place with a personal best 20:48.  The winner was Peter Nixon of Seacroft Wheelers in 20:20.

In the Godric CC open 50-mile time trial on the A143, starting near Broome and heading to Stockton and Needham roundabouts twice, finishing near Bungay Common, the fastest VCB rider was George Kerridge with 2-08:15, which earned him third place on handicap.

The morning started bright but the weather deteriorated and a gusting north-westerly side-wind favouring the two legs in the direction of Stockton picked up before the rain at the close of the event.

However, Kerridge was feeling strong and so was Chris Womack, who achieved 2-16:02 (+14:20).

John Swanbury and John Thompson both had a fairly bad time and finished in 2-27:08 and 2-37:24 respectively.

The event was also billed as the East District CA 50-mile championship and Team VeloVelocity’s fast man Daniel Bloy won in 1-51:21 from Charlie Nurse (North Norfolk Wheelers) 1-55:34 and Godric’s James Trenchard 1-55:43.

Sally Withey won for the ladies with 2-21:51, while Emma Beard of Stowmarket & District CC won the ladies’ handicap and Team VeloVelocity won the team prize.

Godric CC’s Tuesday 25 last week was cancelled because of afternoon rain, which cleared too late.

In Gt Yarmouth CC’s club 10 at Somerleyton Paul Dennington and Titch Richards were both on good times, with Dennington at 23:20 and Richards on a personal best 23:58, riding a Planet X time trial bike for the first time.

They finished fourth and fifth in the 24-rider event, behind Joe Skipper (Team Pedal Revolution NCA) 22:09, Jay Lingwood (Rock Estate) 22:53 and Andy Tyler (CC Breckland) 23:08.

John Dupen and Chris Womack were among those who were disappointed when Saturday’s VTTA East Anglia) 25-mile event incorporating the VTTA National Championships had to be abandoned just after it had started, as torrential rain on the A11 and A14 dual carriageways made riding unsafe.

Mike Rainton is likely now to be just completing his latest “End to End” ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats for the Bishop Simeon Trust.  He has a fundraising page that you can access on Virgin Money Giving by searching for him on the website as “Mike Rainton” and he will welcome donations.