Richards third and Lucas He sets new club junior record at 25 miles

Velo Club Baracchi rider Lucas He, riding his second 25-mile time trial in the Gt Yarmouth CC open event on the Somerleyton course set a new club junior record.

His 59:25 time on this sporting course was a particularly strong and was his first sub-hour ride.

Top VCB rider Mark Richards took third place in the event with 56:44, a time which was more than six minutes outside his best, which testifies to the relative difficulty of this sporting course compared with dual carriageways.

Richards returns to HQ

Mark Saunders of VCB in his first attempt at the distance was rightly pleased with a 59:36 finish, while the two-up team of Paul Haywood and Rock Estate rider Jay Lingwood won the two-up competition between four teams with 58:45.

Joe Skipper of Team Skipper won in 53:25 and Harley Matthews of DAP CC took second in 54:39. Alex He of VCB may be the handicap winner with his 1-11:53 ride and other VCB times were John Swanbury 1-07:55 and Richard Allen 1-18:07.

Alex He in the event

On Tuesday last week the VCB times in Godric CC’s club 10 were Hayward 22:47, Swanbury 25:47, Paul Reed 27:44.  The winner was UEA CC’s Tom Hubard in 21:42 with Simon Scott of Anglia Velo second in 22:11.

Charles Jones of VCB too 12^th place overall in a bunch finish behind the first and second-placed riders in round 1 of the Lotus League racing, with Esser 21^st and Richards 32^nd, all in the same time.  Darren Rutherford of Iceni Velo won with a very short lead from Paul Groombridge of Push Sport and the bunch close behind them.

Nick Esser finished ninth and Richards tenth in the E/1/2/3 race in the third round of the Eagles Crit Series at RAF Woodbridge, a 1.4km circuit in and out of the hangar area. Oliver Jones of Cycle Team OnForm took the win in torrential rain with sketchy corners and a 24.7mph average.

Esser said “As soon as the race began after a neutralised lap Team OnForm rider Kieran Jarvis attacked and within two laps he was trawled back, his team mate Ollie Jones countered and stayed away for the rest of the race to win by 40-seconds.”

“Each lap, because of the slow corners and fast accelerations the field was reduced down to just a dozen riders by the end. Titch took to the front with two laps to go with very tired legs from his efforts at Lotus the day before & stretched the field leading them all out into the final corner.”

In the race for fourth cats VCB rider Hayward took second place behind Joseph Smith.  He said, “I was feeling good and sitting in third wheel on the last lap.”

He explained how with two others they got a gap and it looked as if they would contest a sprint finish but it had started to rain and on the penultimate corner and the rider in second wheel crashed, leaving Hayward nowhere to go except on the grass.  He stayed upright and resumed his chase, finishing second and holding off the third-placed rider by a few bike lengths.

John Thompson organised “The Norfolk Special” 160 and 200km audaxes from Lound.  All forty-one riders finished, 35 in the 200km and 6 in the 160km, including VCB’s Kate Churchill, who took nine hours and 23 minutes in the 200.