Steve Summons bounces back from injury

Steve Summons, who has now recovered from the cycling accident injuries to his ribs, stormed to the best Velo Club Baracchi ride in the Godric CC 10 last week.

 

His 24:36 beat VCB’s current star Chris Womack (24:43) as well as Chris’s son Mark (25:49) and John Thompson (28:46). 

Twenty-six solo riders and one tandem pair took part.   The tandem was VCB’s John Swanbury and Ali Banks, trying hard to get below 23 minutes but foiled on this occasion to record 23:05.

 

Some good times were ridden in the warmth but the surface on part of the road that was recently top dressed is still giving the riders a hard time, as it is noticeably slower than the smooth parts that were not treated. 

The best time was recorded by Bungay’s Jim Burgess of Anglia Velo (21:18) which gave him a big margin on Simon Boyle of Stowmarket & District CC (22:08) and Stuart Pryce of Strada Sport (22:11).  There were three 23-minute rides, including that of Simon Scott of Anglia Velo (23:20). 

Summons and Chris Womack both had good rides in the Gt Yarmouth CC club time trial, won by Joe Skipper of Strada Sport in a superb time of 21:35. 

Womack’s time was 25:21, with Summons close to this with 25:34, Mark Womack 26:39 and Richard Allen 29:48. 

Jenny Anderson of Gt Yarmouth Cc, a second-claim VCB member, achieved 27:58. 

John Thompson travelled to the south of Colchester on Sunday to ride the Colchester Rovers 47-mile event, an unconventional distance, run as part of the sporting courses competition.  It was an unusual event, which he enjoyed. 

The HQ was at Peldon, nearMerseaIsland, although the start was about 3 miles from there, just after Gt Wigborugh.  There were two laps of a circuit that passes Abberton reservoir through Birch and Tiptree to Heybridge and then through Tolleshunt d’Arcy, the second circuit being slightly different, passing through Gt Wigborough to finish at Peldon. 

He said “It’s certainly is a sporting course!  There’s a brute of a hill within a mile of starting and an even worse one about 1.5 miles after that in Layer Breton, which saw me using the smaller chain ring and it’s up and down all the way round.” 

It was windy, so although there were some very fast downhill stretches with the tailwind this never fully compensated for the headwinds and side-winds. 

Thompson said, “All in all I feel my time of 2-37:40 in such an event was respectable enough for me.”  The winner was Rob Chaplin (East London Velo) in 1-51:53, described by Thompson as “an astounding time for such an event.”