Newmarket mountain biker Jason Bouttell dominated the Senior Men’s category in at the Mud, Sweat and Gears races in Henham Park near Southwold, while Emily Quantrill from Bury St Edmunds took her first Elite women’s win, writes Fergus Muir.
The Henham Park course is mainly laid out on two sides of a wooded north-south oriented valley, which provided excellent protection from Sunday’s strong westerly wind.
Remarkably the racing mostly fitting into sunny spells – though there was the odd flurry of sleet and at the end of the day the heavens opened on the senior prize presentation. However everyone successfully decamped to the signing-on tent, which was luckily just cleared of all the event paraphernalia.
Some felt the course was less overtly challenging than in previous years – though it hardly felt like that for those going flat out.
A feature was the pits, set out on the wide wooden bridge which forms the stage during the Latitude Festival.
Jason Bouttell – recently back from racing in Cyprus – showed his class by opening an immediate gap of over 40 seconds by the end of the first lap and more than five minutes by the finish
Behind Bouttell, Seb Herrod raced with Michael Butler until Butler was dropped with 25 minutes remaining., but still took third spot ahead of Seb Herrod’s brother Zac (Derby University).
Zac, incidentally, currently heads the Sport Category national rankings.
Em Quantrill gradually gained on MSG round one Expert winner Elvita Branch and finished two minutes up. But so far super-Vet Laura Sampson, winner of the Veteran Female category remains fastest overall.
Like Bouttell, Jimmy Piper (Renvale RT) had a five minute gap in winning his category – the Vets 50-59. Among local riders well-placed were long distance man Mark Wellsted, third, and Mark Wingar, Mr Stainless, who was fourth.
Josh Wakeling (Adalta) won the Sport category – next down from Expert/Elite – opening a gap on Will Dorsett after two of the six laps. HKR team manager Chris Harley took sixth place here with Jake Towler from Beck Row one place down.
Detailed results can be seen at www.timelaps.co.uk.
In contrast to the conditions at Henham Park, there was not a lot of shelter from the wind for competitors in West Suffolk Wheelers’ Hilly 21 time trial held on a Risby-Flempton-Lackford-Cavenham circuit.
The vastly experienced Hedingham rider Simon Daw who took the Veteran’s prize commented: “Possibly the windiest conditions I’ve ever time-trialled in.”
Men’s winner was Cambridge University rider John Mulvey who rides for the Active Edge road team and likes to mix bunched and time-trial racing.
Mulvey won in 46:10 from Leon West (CC Sudbury, 49:52), with Daw (Datalynx-Parenesis) third in 50:38.
Women’s winner was Rosamund Bradbury (Sigma Sport, 55:21) who did not use tri-bars nor attempt a stretched out aero position – perhaps reflecting her background as former Olympic Squad rower. Jen Smart, newly recruited to the VeloVelocity team was second in 59:41.
In a notable sign of the times, even though paper entry to the event was available, every entrant used the CTT online entry system.
A traditional classification for bikes restricted to “medium” gears was incorporated and was won in 1:00:30 by the promoting club’s Boyd Nicholas. He found the downhill, tailwind leg between Risby and Flempton was scarily fast, spinning out on the 72 inch gear close to 30mph.
The Paul Simon Homes RR near Chelmsford was won by Sebastian Dickson of Cambridge University CC who made an early break with David Veitch (Lea Valley CC) and eventually won alone with Veitch second.
A group of ten emerged from the bunch to unsuccessfully chase the leaders. From this group Alistair Gurney (CC London) soled to third place while Claydon rider Matt Day, newly in Orwell Velo colours this season, outsprinted Matt Carter (Velo Schils) for fourth place.
The Maldon Hilly time trial was won by Felix Barker (ActiveEdge) in 44:41. Louise Robinson (Essex Roads CC) was top woman in 55:17.
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