The penultimate TT of the season on the club’s regular K4/20 course took place on another still evening, if a bit on the chilly side. Thankfully this week the course was free of road works and this allowed for some good racing with close times throughout the 40-rider field.
Records are being broken almost every week this season on all the club’s courses, with many coming from our junior riders, who just get faster and faster as the season progresses. This week both Poppy Kisley and Will Morris lowered their own girl’s and boy’s U16 records, settings times of 34.24 and 35.37 respectively.
Another great turnout of 12 women competed on the night, with only 17 seconds separating the first three riders. Lydia Watts (AWOL) was fastest on 31.43, but right on her tail, just 5 seconds further back was Annie Heaney (Team Cherwell) on 31.48. Sian Marsh, still a relative newcomer to the world of cycling, put in another great performance to finish third, just a further 12 seconds adrift on 32.00.
In the men’s category times were also fairly close with experienced Drag2Zero team mates Simon Smart and Jon Simpkins leading the way as they’d done on this course in mid-July. Simon managed to beat Jon by just 4 seconds then, but on this occasion his time of 27.36 was 23 seconds quicker than Jon. A further 14 seconds back was Simon Bull in third, with Ben Heaney a similar gap back in fourth.
Top 10 Results; 1. Simon Smart 27.36, 2. Jon Simpkins 27.59, 3. Simon Bull 28.13, 4. Ben Heaney 28.27, 5. Blaine Carpenter 28.34, 6. Tony Ball 28.48, 7. Lee Heron 29.11, 8. Mark Davis 29.37, 9. Steve Goddard 30.00, 10. Will Hayter 30.04.
Next week’s TT is the last this season on the K4/20 course – start time 6pm.