WEEKEND RACE REPORT 20JUL09

TT

Thursday night a few of us headed over to Maidenhead to ride the Thicket 10 course. Just as we were about to start the heavens opened and down came the rain! Despite the dreadful weather conditions I rode the course as a two up with Stewart King in a time of 26.31 which wasn’t bad considering the conditions.  Also braving the torrential rain was Kevin Holloway 23.10, Nick Calkin 23.20, Joe Holloway 25.57.

Saturday, Gordon and Margaret  took Chrissy Radon to  Cambridge to ride the API Metro  Team Cambridge 25 mile TT on the E2/25  course. This course is renound to be very quick on the right day,  but strong westerly winds made it a tough day! Chrissy still managed to storm the 20 strong ladies field with an incredible win in 56.53 a winning margin of over one and half minutes.  This is yet another HWCC ladies record  – now  the 5th in a row in the last two months.  

Richard Davies was also riding in the men’s event finishing with a time of 1.00.45. He was slightly disappointed with his time as he had blasted round the same course a few weeks ago in better conditions in 58 minutes!
 
Sunday Adam Topham came 3rd in Poole Wheelers 25 on a windy sporting course with an awesome time of 56:56. The event was won by  Dave Pickering in 56:35. It seems that Adam’s experimentation with higher cadence paid off and he went home really pleased with his performance!

Also on Sunday a few Wycombe riders braved the weather and early start to ride the MHCA 100. Chris Starling and Chris Greig thought better of it and were both a DNS although Chris Starling did grace the club run with his presence instead.  Dave Johnson came in with a time of 4.1.07 securing him 4th place with Nick Calkin hot on his heels with a 4.22. Duncan Smith and Kevin Holloway both did not finish. The event was won in 3.51.49 by Jenkinson.

MTB

Report from Neil Wragg:

Hyperthermia was a reality for many competitors on the Austrian Salzkammergut MTB Trophy even though on the day before Saturday’s race it was 32 degrees and blue skies.  It shows how quickly mountainous weather can be lethal and with most riders in summer racing kit the 114 kms mountain bike race was cancelled with two thirds of the field not even reaching the halfway point.

A freezing storm had been in full effect since the night before and was now bringing snow and zero visibility to those riders reaching the mountain tops.

A comprehensive report on the conditions and how the race went for Neil Wragg will follow but the results were published for all those riders who did reach the final checkpoint of the shortened race in the treacherous conditions.

He was the 2nd British rider (3 minutes behind a pro team Merida rider) and the 181st rider overall to get to the cancellation point out of 584.

1500 riders started the race at Bad Goisern but two thirds quit when body temperatures plummeted after the freezing rain at the start turned into snow over the initial 1400 metre summit.   

“I wanted to continue but they wouldn’t let me, my plan was to ride the first half conservatively so I was just getting warmed up!” said Neil.  “Actually I wasn’t getting any warmer no matter how hard I rode so the organisers probably made a very wise decision for me”.

TRACK

Stewart King let his prescence be know at Palmer Park on Monday night, placing 4th in both the Hare and Hound and also the Devil.

SPORTIVES

John Francis entered the Anthony Maynard Sportive on Sunday. This event was organised by Reading Cycling Club in memory of Anthony Maynard who was fatally injured whilst on a club run just outside Henley last year. Starting from Theale it covered 190km and 2600m of climbing over the Berkshire Downs. John finished the event in 7 hours 17 minutes achieving himself a Silver award.