Well, that was a chilly one, yet over 50 riders again turned out last night, to this time face a fresh bitterly cold cross wind. Certainly not ideal time trialling conditions, yet to underline how competitive our weekly TTs have become, the top twelve riders still all got under the 30-minute barrier for the K4/20 13-mile course.
The start of a cold windy ride – photo Paul Dean
What is even more surprising is that winner Luke Norris, who seems to improve with every ride, somehow managed to break his own club course record time by 12 seconds – stopping the clock on 26m.42. In turn that put him a clear 38 seconds ahead of regular visitor Will Davey (Tri Training), who was a further 27 seconds ahead of Jon Simpkins (Drag2Zero) in third place.
Ten women riders braved the conditions, with again Naomi de Pennington setting the fastest time on the night of 31m.17s. Her arch rival, Lydia Watts (Liv/AWOL) was second on 32m.47s., with Annie Heaney (Team Cherwell), getting ever closer to the top duo, in third on 32m.53s. Another rider improving all the time is 16-year-old Peggy Simpkins, who this time managed fourth place on 36m.11s.
Whilst Naomi is currently the club’s leading woman rider, the competition she’s probably more determined to keep ahead of is now coming from her husband. Nick de Pennington has recently got back into cycling competition and last night set a very respectable time of 33m.44s. Can he catch her?
Top 12 Overall Results; 1. Luke Norris 26.42, 2. Will Davey 27.20, 3. Jon Simpkins 27.47, 4. Mark Ellis 28.12, 5. Simon Smart 28.18, 6. Blaine Carpenter 28.36, 7. Graham Martin 28.43, 8. Tony Ball 28.55, 9. Simon Bull, 10. Ben Heaney 29.06, 11. Grant Marshall 29.40, 12. Jamie Chatfield 29.48
Full results are now up on the Time Trials page