Womack’s new 50-mile best; Lucas 15th at National junior 10

Lucas at the start of the National (junior) 10

In a great week for Velo Club Baracchi, veteran Chris Womack notched up a personal best 50-mile time on the A11 and Lucas He rode for the club in the RTTC 10-mile National Championship (Juniors) with a great result.

70-year-old Womack’s age-defying new personal best time, 2-01:42, was achieved in the CC Breckland open 50 from Attleborough on Saturday.  This was a “plus” of 31:40 inside his age-related standard time of 2-33:22.

Sharing this age, but not quite the speed, club-mate John Swanbury recorded 2-07:28, his second-best time of the current millennium.

The overall winner of the event was Norwich-based former Lowestoft athlete Joe Skipper of Team Skipper in 1-40:31 ahead of Dave Green (Team VeloVelocity) 1-43:18.

Local rider Denise Hurren of Sole Bay Cycle Sport, in her first 50, was third with 1-57:23 behind Laura Bartlett of Hampshire-based team a3crg (1-53:04) and Susan Triplow of Essex Roads CC (1-56:28).

Lucas He was riding the national event for the first time and on windswept roads in Cumbria on Sunday he notched up a 21:57 time (27.335mph) for fifteenth place in an entry of forty riders.

The championship was won for the second year by Jake Wright of Zappi Racing Team in 20:15 and the female junior champion was Caitlin Peters of i-Team Cyclists Club in 24:00.

Paul Hayward has become the VCB 25-mile champion with a 57:03 ride for first place the previous week in Godric CC’s club event that was billed as the VCB championship date.

Though he was the only VCB rider, as a result of the insertion of the re-arranged CC Breckland 25 into the calendar, he deserved the title.

VCB chairman Brian Boxall commented, “Paul is the worthy winner and also did the club proud by winning the event.”

Richard Allen of VCB rode in the Gt Yarmouth CC 25-mile club time trial on Sunday, with 1-14:27 on the testing Somerleyton sporting course.

Fastest solo rider was Jonny Hawes of GYCC with 1-02:29, while tandem riders Jason and Georgia Corner of Diss CC managed 1-12:41.

John Thompson rode the Shaftesbury CC 215km (134 miles) audax on Saturday, called “Early Autumn Randonee.” It took 13.5 hours, a bit longer than usual, but was hilly.

The first loop was via Thaxted and Gt Bardfield to Greenstead Farm café control and back to the HQ via Coggeshall.  The second two loops crossed the border into Hertfordshire.

He said, “Despite the slow ride, I can still sense I’m getting fitter.”