It was the sort of day time-trialists dream about. Despite outwardly unattractive conditions, both the VC Norwich 25 at Larling and the Eastern Counties CA 50 at Six Mile Bottom produced personal bests by the dozen, writes Fergus Muir.
A National Competition Record fell in the 50, Paul Hart of Southend Wheelers, best known as a roadman, set a new record of 1:34:37. Thetford rider Dave Green (CC Breckland) completed the Newmarket bypass course in 1:39:11, a new veterans record.
David Harding (1:39:46) led a mixed Chelmer CC team of Sam Wightman (1:44:14) and – surely the star of the trio - Lauren Kirchel who improved from an already respectable previous best of 2:10 to 1:52:00. The result was an outright club team record.
Leon West of CC Sudbury (1:43:42) and Glenn Taylor (Shorter/Rochford, 1:43:57) were two more notable performances by Suffolk riders, as was the 1:57:51 which won top handicap prize for Wolsey RC’s Cliff Matthews.
At the start of the “25” at Larling, also late on Saturday afternoon, it was depressingly grey and overcast with the threat of light rain. However it soon became apparent it was a fast night and in the end only three of the 53 finishers were outside the hour.
Fastest of all was Matthew Senter, the VeloVelocity rider lowering his PB to 47:52, while teammate Ben Stancombe recorded 48:56 for fourth.
In between these two triathlete Joe Skipper finished in 48:55 and, perhaps the surprise of the day, 15 year-old Oliver Stockwell (Welwyn Wheelers) finished in 48:56 - a new national juvenile age record.
Top woman was Denise Hurren (Sole Bay Sport) who knocked 1:05 off Sue Triplow’s course record, set in this event last year. Second-placed Becky Scofield (Tri-Anglia) was just five seconds slower than Hurren.
Top local finishers included Matt O’Brien from Grundisburgh (seventh in 49:10), Plomesgate clubmate Steve Cave (12th in 52:20), top man from the Stowmarket club,
Adrian Pettitt (52:40) and Ian Short (52:57). Short, from Sudbury, was especially pleased that in 30 years of racing this was his fastest 25 since 1994.
Top rider from the new 3T Racing Club was Owen Crisp (53:39) The “3Ts” in this new Colchester racing club’s name are Timetrialling, Triathlon and Tandems. The club grew out of a project to update a 1953 Rory O’Brien tandem.
Turning to road racing - there was a fine win for Birds Green rider Laurence Kirby (Active Edge) in the Ken Wright Memorial race on the Abberton circuit near Colchester.
The light wind conditions did little to break up the field and, though Ross Fawcett (Pedal Power Ipswich) tried hard to get away on the last lap, the field was largely intact crossing the reservoir with a mile to go.
Fortunately the finish road is very wide. Former pro Lloyd Chapman – coach to Kirby – provided a lead-out, and Kirby was able to latch onto the wheels of some who attacked early and come around with 100 yards to go.
In the PCH Road Race near Saffron Walden Felix Barker (Cambridge CC) won after a long and successful breakaway with Seb Herrod (Strada Sport).
At the Round two of the Lotus League circuit races, Gary Freeman (Fast Test) opened a six second gap on a charging breakaway group. Sam Yates (Strada Sport) won the supporting race.
Looking at local riders racing further afield: Jason Bouttell is now third overall in the MTB XC national series, after finishing seventh at Peebles in Scotland while Robin Hawes (Chelmer CC) was sixth in the Cat 2/3 race at Hog Hill.
His Chelmer CC clubmate Aaron Freeman was 40th out of 64 in the Under 16s in the Isle of Man Youth Tour, with a best stage result of seventh in the prologue, while Ipswich Velo rider Abbey Thompson was fourth overall out of eight finishers in the Under 10s, including a win in stage two which put her in pink for the final stage.
RESULTS – VC Norwich 25, Larling:
1 Matthew Senter (VeloVelocity) 47:52, 2 Oliver Stockwell (Welwyn Whs) 48:46, 3 Joe Skipper (Team Skipper) 48:55, 4 Ben Stancombe (VeloVelocity) 48:56, 5 Jack Brown(Cambridge University CC) 48:57, 6 Toby Cowell (Cambridge University CC) 49:03, 7 Matt O’Brien( Plomesgate CC) 49:10, 8 Alistair Golby (Cambridge University CC) 49:24, 9 Iain Robertson (Tri-Anglia) 51:47, 10 Dan Blackburn (VC Norwich) 51:53, 11 Matt Ratcliffe (North Norfolk Whs) 51:5412 Steve Cave (Plomesgate CC) 52:20, 13 Adrian Pettitt (Stowmarket & District) 52:40, 14 Ian Short (Team Salesengine) 52:57,15 John Swindells (Iceni Velo) 53:04, 16 Ben Keeley (VeloVelocity) 53:11, 17 Chris Tye (Plomesgate CC) 53:18,18 Neil Empson (Anglia Velo) 53:36, 19 Geoff Frost (VeloVelocity) 53:37, 20 David Crisp (3T-Racing) 53:39.t
Women: 1 Denise Hurren (Sole Bay Sport) 55:57, 2 Becky Schofield (Tri-Anglia) 56:00, 3 Ann Shuttleworth (Braintree Velo) 59:36.
PCH Road Race, Cat 2/3, Saffron Walden:
1 Felix Barker (Cambridge CC), 2 Seb Herrod (Strada-Sport), 3 Calvin Cheung (Hub Vélo), 4 Daniel Young (Pro Cycle Hire UK), 5 Liam Fenner (API-Metrow), 6 Phil Williams, Henry Lee,8 Neil Coyte (6AM Cycling), 9 James Street (CC London), 10 Jake Towler (Strada-Sport).
Abberton Road Race nr. Cochester:
1 Laurence Kirby (ActiveEdge RT), 2 James Ambrose-Parish( TBW Bottecchia Wigmore RT), 3 Frank Longstaff (Richardsons-Trek), Rhys Clegg (PMR),5 Tom Rowson (Velo Schils), 6 Oliver Bates (Team Bottrill-Vanguard) 7 Hamish Graham (Green Jersey RT), 8 Harley Matthews (DAP CC), 9 Will Swarbrick (CT OnForm), 10 Matthew Webster (Flamme Rouge).
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