Dr Hutch (In Gear) was the star with a winning time of 18:52 from up and coming James Wall (Echelon) 19:28 and Richard O'Rourke (Flitch Crono) the only other rider inside 30mph 19:41. I wasn't off until late in the day 17.00 so the prospect of starting the Norlond Combine '50' at 06.30 the next morning not so hot
The early starters were greeted with still (if cold) conditions to ply our way up and down the A1 between Sandy & Buckden a couple of times, I started well although cautiously and I was miffed to have one of the bearings in my rear wheel collapse at 6 miles, I carried on to 10 miles (21:40) but then the unstable nature of the disc meant I had to ease off. By the time I'd completed lap one (23m) I was still at 54 minutes (25mph) but I was at risk of having doing some (permanent) damage to myself or my wheel, the wheel expensive to replace so I stopped.
I moped around the HQ while the other riders finished and Ian Cammish (Planet X) the undisputed king of this strip of tarmac ran out the winner with 1:49:49 (20:32 the previous day) from Mark Howard (Shaftsbury CC) 1:52:22 after a year out 'road racing' and Tristan Davenne (Newbury RC) 1:52:06 I was so put out by this result that after driving back to Leicester and having a lie down for an hour I went out to do 30m at 22mph cross country on 81" fixed
I had been due to ride the Hull City RC '10' on the Uber fast V718 on the Tuesday evening but as the event had to be moved to another course due to roadworks I gave the 250 mile post work round trip a miss and did a speed session on 93" fixed to hone my edge for the coming weekend where I have two National title races. Before that I rode a 40 mile evening crit at Mallory Park with some of the country's best Elite/1st cat road men and ride out and home making 85m for the day
After a rest day on the Friday I have the VTTA National '25' on the Sat afternoon on the A1 further up this time at Newark, this was my PB course in my comeback season and the day promised a great deal and I had chosen to ride a 'fixed' in an effort to improve my pursuiting position for the Masters track in July. Jon Thomas had made the journey up for the day so I went out to give him a shout and decide on gearing as the other imperative was not to overstress my overworked legs for the next days National '10'. In the end I decided on 53 x 14 (100.6") and apart from the incline around Newark I managed to handle it pretty well to a decent 6th place 53:33 Jon came in with a seasons best of 57:56, of the fast (younger) riders 44 year old Barry Charlton (Lyme RC) was fastest 50:58 from scratchman Rob Weare (Leamington C & AC) 52:30 (49 years) and Ian Dalton (Cherry Valley) 52.53 (44 years) but of course we were all out shone by the sun and the old'uns who run out the winners on Standard, 79 year old Ron Hallam (S Pennine RC) +27:55 with a ride 19 seconds outside the hour from 73 year old Derek Stuart (Deeside)+26:21 (58:01) and Frank Kerry (Lancarshire RC) +26:09 58:51 a year older
The main event of the week (my final event of a packed programme) was the Stratford CC promotion of the National '10' the first of this years Championships and one that has come to attract a breed of super fast 'testers' with their worship of Power and Aero, and this year three of the all conquering National team pursuit squad to have a tilt at the fastest championship on open roads.
Riding a fixed wheel was meant to save my legs a bit for today but I think the 120 RPM (35mph) finish had done a bit more damage than anticipated and although I was back on gears for this one I could feel a bit of deep down trauma waiting to break through once the pressure was on. I did a bit of a warm up along the course after Julia Shaw (Utag Yamaha) had clinched the Women's title with 20:31 from Sarah Storey (Horizon) 20:58 and Lynne Taylor (Born to Bike) 21:52. Earlier in the day Oliver Rossi (PCA) had done a storming 20:29 to win the Juniors from Conor Dunne (Glendene CC) 20:35 and Tom Stockdale (Team Qoros) 20:51
Photo c/o Edward Moss
I was only the 91st fastest entry for this event run in descending order so you have to keep an eye on those around you who are your peers and not much chance to gauge your performance apart from the turn on the A46 near Alcester in Warwickshire. I set out steady to try and run myself in. I got to 5 miles in 10:24 and the second half harder than the first so my 100% 20 minute rides this year looking like a goner but as I began to pull a bit better I could feel myself going not too bad, deep down there was not much substance to my effort but even the long drag up from the Little Chef at Salfords Priors (good thing I didn't go for the all day breakfast!) with a tail wind was not as bad as it looked. Finishing on the windy B road to Alcester I did the second half in 11:08 for 21:32, my time would only be good enough for 78th place but a week a long time and as the women' race it was a repeat of last year Michael Hutchinson the eventual Champion had stretched his winning margin (over me) to nearly 3 minutes.
Hutch knows the way to go
His time at half way 9:04 was un-mached even by eventual silver (& team pursuit maestro) Ed Clancy (Motorpoint) 19:20 (9:08) 2nd last year had to settle for the bronze Andy Tennant (Motorpoint) 19:31 (9:25).
The runners-up perspective "I could not have gone any better"
Mens Result
Womens Result
Juniors Result
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