KCC riders Mike Cope and Eddie Smith traveled to Open time trial events over the weekend, here’s how they got on.

Notts & East Midlands VTTA

• Date/Time: 03-Apr-21 14:00:00
• Distance: 10 Miles
• Course: A10/14

Mike Cope traveled up to Nottinghamshire at the weekend to ride in the Notts and East Midlands VTTA event on the A10/14 course based at Long Bennington near Grantham. The event was open to all ages and attracted 98 entrants.

Mike says: “I have not ridden the course since back in 2001 Since then, two extra roundabouts have been added, including a very slow one onto the A1 slip road and a climb up and over the A1 at the turn. It is basically a one mile ride though Long Bennington on a potholed road, and then 9 miles on the A1.

“Conditions were a bit warmer than of late, and it crept above 10°C along with a very light Easterly breeze which helped on the way back.

“My course PB was 24:09, set back on 2000, and it has always been a bogey course for me, with either weather or other issues stopping me from breaking above 25mph.

“Training has gone well and I set myself a target of 23:00 if all went well. I was delighted to be given a time of 22:06 to beat my old course best and to sneak into the top half of the field. The event was won by Oliver Peckover UpShift Nutrition Race Team was a superb 18:52. Fastest Vet was Richard Oakes of Team Ohten Aveas in 19:29.”

Brian Hall was on hand to take photographs.

Stowmarket & District C.C.

• Date/Time: 17-Apr-21 14:00:00
• Distance: 20 Miles
• Course: BS33

Eddie Smith, traveled out to Stowmarket, to compete.

Eddie says: “The day did not go well, I struggled to find clear signs for the HQ and looking for it, did give me the opportunity to reckie the course… several times! Having spent 3.5 hrs with the drive over and then the hunt to sign on, it was not the warm up i was expecting, nor wanting.

“All of the delays mean’t I got to the start 1 minute late, (I am assuming that gave me a penalty of 1 minute on my time) but that did not deter me and I was looking forward to racing. The weather was bright and sunny, however the course conditions were not great, the first corner was gravel with a short climb, next was a hill climb got stuck behind a car trying to overtake an earlier rider, after which I then go going again and could see another rider up front whom i past, I was then overtook by my 3 minute man… geeing me up so I pushed on to the next corner.

“The corner caught me out, and I found myself rather close to the shiny tarmac road surface…  😖 I could feel the smarting in my hands and legs as I slid, but there was no real damage, and I soon mounted up and continued to race. I crossed the line and was awarded a finish time of 55:34, being 20th in the field. The fasted time of the day came from Jason Bouttell (Team Vision Racing – Silverhook) with an official time of 41:04 setting a new mens course record.”

What are you up to?

If you are participating in any events, drop me a line with a quick summary, include the event details and your race time, position and a quick recap on how it felt for you on the day… we’ll publish it on the website in a weekly news summary and you may even get a mention in the local Evening Telegraph.

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