Hayward and Reed in Cyclo-cross; weather affects riding (except JT)

On the Wrinklies ride

Before the weekend’s drop in temperatures the rides by the informal “Wrinklies” groups were quite well attended and it seemed almost spring-like.

In Fridays faster group were Keith Wink, Paul Dennington, Shaun Davey, John Swanbury and Ian Read and they covered about 50 miles.

Paul Hayward and Paul Reed of VC Baracchi rode in the open male class of the Mud, Sweat & Gears Eastern Series Round 2 cyclo-cross at Henham, with Hayward in 30^th place and Reed 55^th of the 59 who were placed.  Andy Hurst of Colchester Rovers CC won this class.

Cycling in the bitter weekend weather was not an exciting prospect for anyone and only the keenest would have ventured out.

John Thompson, VC Baracchi’s regular audax enthusiast, was not wholly deterred, but he cut down his distance.

For Saturday he had entered the “Cambridge Pork Pie” 214-km audax.  He said, “However, the thought of possibly returning in snowed up lanes in the dark did not fill me with joy!”

Out of 108 entries, 40 started and he knew of seven who did not finish.  Thompson downgraded to the 111km event.

Based at Girton pavilion, near Cambridge, the route took him to Barkway, at 39km, Anstey at 44.5km, Withersfield at 80km and back to Girton.

He completed in around 7 hours 30 minutes. There was no shortage of hills, a very strong head or side-headwind most of the way and he insisted that although the controls were at pubs this did not delay him.

Thompson negotiated shared pedestrianised areas in Cambridge and other delaying factors, but added, “The organiser has a nice arrangement with the proprietors of the pub at Barkway, providing large and tasty sausage rolls, cakes and tea and coffee.”  He explained that even having to pay for them did not put him off.

On Sunday he had a little ride taking in Oakington, Longstanton, Willingham, Rampton and Cottenham before catching the train home.

The next competitive event locally will be Gt Yarmouth CC’s open 10-mile time trial on the A143, based at Wortwell.  Riders are looking forward to it, hoping that cold weather will not return for this event.