Newnham rides well at Gt Yarmouth CC’s Somerleyton 10

Velo Club Baracchi rider Mark Newnham took second solo place with 25:19 in last Thursday’s Gt Yarmouth CC club time trial in a field of twenty-five riders and a tandem pair.

Other VCB times were Steve Summons 28:36, Mark Womack 29:05 and John Dupen 29:18. Peter Hargreaves of Strada RT won in 24:29.

Velo Club Baracchi riders John Thompson and Gary Matthews rode the Ipswich BC 10-mile open time trial on Sunday.

As Thompson said, “It was on one of those courses many simply don’t bother with.  It was a qualifying Spoco East event as it has 500 feet of climbing.”

The start was at Crowfield and follows country lanes to Framsden, where it does a short stretch of the route used in last year’s Kellogs tour, then to Pettaugh and back to Crowfield

On this sporting course Thompson achieved 32:37, which he though might sound ridiculous, but comparing his time with others achieved by usually quicker riders he felt it was not surprising.

Thompson reported that Gary Matthews’ was shown as 32:51 and said might have had problems as he was hurriedly pumping his rear tyre at the start, which Matthews later confirmed.

The winner was Jason Bouttell of VeloVelocity in 22:35.

On the previous day Thompson rode the King’s Lynn CC 10 on their usual course, which starts on the A10 at South Runcton, turning left at the Bexwell roundabout to Stradsett and left again to finish at Wormegay.

He achieved 29:42 and was able to rationalise this in similar fashion. It was fast with a tailwind for the first 3.7 miles but after that it was hard, particularly the final stretch, which was against the wind and predominantly up-hill

Daniel Bloy of the promoting club won in 21:10 from Bouttell (21:13) and Gary Rushmore, also of King’s Lynn CC (21:55).

On the previous Sunday Nicki Hawkes, Patrick Harbord and Richard Allen were officiating at the Strada Road Race on ten laps of the Somerleyton road race course.

Elites took three of the first four places.  Former VCB road racers Nick Esser, Mark Westrup and Liam Gentry were much in evidence for the Strada team.  Esser rode well.  Westrup rode up front for ages on behalf of Gentry, who was eighth.

Gentry has been enjoying a strong start to the season, with wins in rounds 1 and 3 of the Lotus circuit racing series on Wednesdays at Hethel.

Godric CC’s club 10 was a victim of the cold, windy weather.  The safety signs were put out and the officials were there, but the shivering riders who assembled at Earsham took one look at the strong side-wind and taking into account the likelihood of rain that would have made it worse, they decided against riding.

Most but not all of the riders on the informal 40 to 50-mile rides organised by local rider Mike Horne are retired and they have recently been dubbed “the wrinklies” (though to be fair they have for some years thought of themselves as the “Over the Hill Gang”).

They set off from at 9am from Carlton Colville church on Tuesdays (or Wednesdays if wet) and Fridays and the rides have been consistently well supported, with never less than half a dozen riders and sometimes more.