Lucas He 7th and 2nd in successive open events

Lucas at full pelt (photo by Dominic Austrin)

Velo Club Baracchi junior rider Lucas He added to his excellent results with seventh place in the Norwich ABC open 10-mile time trial and the second-fastest ride in the following day’s Plomesgate CC open 10.

VCB times in the NABC event were Lucas He 21:11, Paul Hayward 21:58, and Alex He 24:51.

Harley Matthews of DAP CC won in 19:56, challenged closely by Team VeloVelocity riders Matthew Senter 20:09 and Daniel Bloy 20:10 and by Mark Richards (DAP CC) 20:18.

In Sunday’s Plomesgate event on the Wickham Market by-pass the outward leg was the harder, with more uphill gradient and a south-westerly breeze.

Lyster Romero, a top junior aged 18, whose personal best is 20:20, took the win with 20:32 and 17-year-old Lucas was second with 21:25.  Lucas was awarded the junior prize.

Matt O’Brien of the host club rode in 21:39 and veterans Paul Jay of Team VeloVelocity and Simon Daw of Velo Schills Interbike RT achieved 21:39 and 21:52 respectively.

Wrentham-based Denise Hurren (Sole Bay Cycle Sport) won the women’s category with 24:15. Chris Dyason 23:32 (Cambridge CC) was fastest veteran on standard with a +5.20.

VC Baracchi tandem riders John Swanbury and Ali Banks found that their intended opposition had sent illness apologies for absence and took the tandem prize with a 23:02 ride.

On Saturday the VCB riders in the VTTA East Anglian group 10 on the A11 road at Four Went ways had decidedly bad luck. It was a peculiar afternoon with strong gusting headwinds on the outward leg and later on in the starting order heavy rain discouraged many people from setting off.

Chris Womack mistook someone standing before the finish for the timekeeper and eased up prematurely, Swanbury and Banks lost two minutes refitting a dropped chain beside the dual carriageway and Paul Dennington was brought up short a few metres after the start when both tyres let him down with a bang.

The recorded times were Womack 24:55 and the tandem pair 24:34, finishing third tandem of six.

David Langlands of Team Bottrill / HSS Hire was the only solo rider under 20 minutes with 19:04. Glenn Taylor of Shorter Rochford RT and Mark Arnold of CC Desiragear were quickest of the tandems with 19:12.

The week before, Paul Hayward rode a personal best 53:12 in the Team VeloVelocity 25 from Newmarket and Mark Richards of DAP CC achieved a 48:55 ride, describing the ride as hard all the way around, especially around the area near the turn at Six Mile Bottom.

Luke Rowell of VCB rode well in the Orwell Velo road race won by Mike Bell of Fast Test and was placed eighteenth.  He came in with the bunch which followed in the three-man break and one other escapee.

John Thompson rode exploratory rides for upcoming audax events.