Lowestoft rider Seb Herrod followed up his cyclo-cross win in the Stowmarket event last week with top spot in Thetford Racing’s three-hour mountain bike race near Brandon, writes Fergus Muir.
Herrod has in prospect an off-road stage race in Lanzarote at the end of the month, but before that there is the possibility of completing a hat-trick of local wins. That is if he is on form for the Iceni Velo cyclo-cross at World Horse Welfare, Snetterton on Sunday.
Also racing in Lanzarote will be Herrod's dad Nigel who, despite his 60-plus years, was ninth out of 65 starters in the Vets (over 40) three-hour
From the start Seb Herrod quickly opened a 30 second lead, but was presently joined by challengers - including Kieren Brown from Sherwood Pines, eventually second, and 2015 Transcontinental Race winner Joshua Ibbett (St Ives CC). However Herrod saw them all off to win by over four minutes
Fastest Vet was Jon Roberts, seven minutes clear of Wisbech HKR team member James Murphy.
Top Ipswich Bicycle Club rider in the Three-Hour was Paul Bird who was 14th. Further back clubmate Nick Bowyer benefited from a fourth-lap mishap to Adrian Healey and leapfrogged the Stowmarket rider, incidentally organiser of last week's cyclo-cross, to finish 25 seconds ahead .
Hilary Ireland was first woman followed by Sally Watts and Colchester Rover Sarah Thomas.
The shorter 90 minutes race option attracted the largest numbers - 108 in the Vet Men alone.
When it came to results age seemed to matter little. It might be expected that the winner would be from the Senior (age 18-39) age group, but in fact two Juniors sprinted for top honours - Saffron Walden rider Alex Dale just beating Thomas Timberlake. The next four places went to Vets - in order, Ben Findlay, Glenn Davey, Paul Groombridge and Craig Gunnell.
Then came the winning Senior Mathew Eley (Phoenix Cycleworks) - though he was only just over two minutes down on those speedy youngsters.
And among the women fastest of all was Ely rider Lisa Marriott (Epic Orange) ahead another veteran, Laura Sampson from East Bergholt bike shop team Sussed Out. Junior Martha Lebentz was third fastest followed by the first Senior Alison Goss..
There's plenty of scope for more women's entries - men outnumbered women by an astonishing nine-to-one in the entry.
A SUBSTANTIAL number of East Anglian cyclo-cross riders travelled to Shrewsbury for the CX National Championships where the star results came from Iceni Velo members in the Under 16 Boys race where, from a field of 97, Callum Laborde was fifth and Joseph Smith eighth.
Riding in another huge field - the Over 50s - Ian Newby (Diss & District) took 12th place. The course featured a lot of off-camber - that is sideways-sloping, and in particular sloping the unhelpful way on corners.
For the Youth and Vets races on Saturday it was relatively dry, though mud soon filled the tread of chunky tyres. Top Suffolk positions came from Ipswich rider Jo Newstead seventh out of 15 in the Women's 50-plus and West Suffolk Wheeler Peter Golding 11th in V60.
On Sunday came the rain and the mudbath.
Local results: Senior Men - Kieran Jarvis 31st; Juniors: Charlie Jones 20th, Dan Hall 49th.
WENSUM Valley Cycling attracted 70 starters for their inaugural 50 Mile Reliabitity Trial. Their modernized route took advantage of GPX navigation to use a lanes route up to the Norfolk coast and back, whereas the former classic East Anglian CC version was basically a simple triangle of A and B-class roads
This Sunday the VC Baracchi trial is over 62 miles, based at Oulton Broad Community Centre NR33 9JZ. Arrive in good time to sign on for starts of progressively faster groups between 8.30 and 9.30am. For more details see the VC Baracchi page on Facebook.
RESULT
THETFORD RACING WINTER SERIES ROUND 3, 90 MINUTE RACES - Fastest over 3 laps:
WOMEN: Lisa Marriott (Epic Orange, Veteran) 1:48:08, Laura Sampson (Sussed Out, Vet) 1 53:24, Elvita Branch (Sussed Out, Senior) 1:53:53, Martha Lebentz (Tofauti, Junior) 2:00:32, Alison Gross (S) 2:03:43, Mollie Bilner (SDCC, Junior) 2:12:54
MEN: Alex Dale (Lee Valley Youth, Junior) 1:38:49, Thomas Timberlake (Banjo, Junior) 1:38:42, Ben Findlay (Vet) 1:39:01, Glenn Davey (SDCC, V) 1:39:11, Paul Groombridge (Epic Orange, V) 1:40:01, William Gell (Numplumz, V ) 1:40:12, Craig Gunnell (V) , 1 :40:33, Mathew Eley (Phoenix Cycleworks, S) 1:40:49
THREE HOUR RACES: WOMEN: Fastest over 5 laps: Hilary Ireland (S) 3:30:46, Sally Watts (JMC), 3:34:13,
MEN - Fastest over 6 laps:Seb Herrod (Rotor RT,S) 3:16:42, Kieren Brown (Sherwood Pines, S) 3:21:28, Jonathan Sheasby (Nomplumz, S) 3:27:16, Jon Roberts (V) 3:27:35
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