Spalding Cycling Club raced to a tight win in an inter-club 25-mile time trial it hosted.
The course was centred around the A52 at Donington, with 32 riders in near-perfect weather conditions.
With the cumulative times of the first three riders from each club counting, Spalding on 178.00 minutes were narrowly ahead of Bourne Wheelers (179.43mins).
Sleaford Wheelers and Boston Wheelers had a hard fought battle for third place, Sleaford eventually came out on top recording 181.13 – just 31 seconds faster than Boston’s 181.44.
Some fast times were posted throughout.
Category A winner was Spalding’s Neil Palmer whose 56.11 was a PB ride and fastest on the night.
Mark Robinson, of Bourne, took Category B and David Smith, of Sleaford, won the Category C award.
Best Under-18 was Sam Bentley, of the host club, and First Lady was Kate Smith, of Sleaford.
Other Spalding riders times: Chris Ward 59.13, Andrew Gurney (consistently improving third counting rider in the team classification) 62.36; Sam Bentley 63.12; Simon Wright 65.31; Derek Chamberlain 67.15; Ross McGivern 69.28; Mark Hills 75.46 and Barry Drew 78.04.
For McGivern and Hills, it was their first 25-mile event.
The race, on Tuesday last week, was organised by club racing secretary Sarah Bentley and assisted by Gary Bentley, pusher off Harry Bellars, timekeepers Sharon Fensom, Nicky Ellis, Jo Bellars, and marshals James Avery, Brian Johnson, Katie Butler, Peter Hull and Chris Bettinson as well as members of Sleaford Wheelers.
Two days earlier Sarah Bentley had been in action herself in the National 100 Mile Championships at Swaffham.
She clocked 5hrs 18min 40secs, averaging just under 19mph to finish 13th.
A club spokesman said: “It was a fantastic ride, especially as Sarah often foregoes the chance to compete in the club league events as she is busy organising and making sure others get a safe ride.”
Spalding’s Tour de France themed “Go Ride” day was a great success with a good number of riders from Boston Wheelers and Bourne Wheelers as well as the host club.
Organised by Megan Kendall, one of the Spalding’s British Cycling Young Volunteers, and coach Chris Peel, the participants had tasks to complete while riding around a course with various obstacles.
Points were awarded for the successful completion of the tasks which included eating and drinking while riding through a slalom course and bike handling skills at low speeds.
As part of the British Cycling “Go Ride“ scheme there were lots of prizes to be won and in keeping with the theme it was yellow, green, white and polka dot T-shirts and certificates for all who took part.
The event finished with short races for each age group.
