Personal best (PB) times were the order of the day at round eight of Spalding Cycling Club’s ten mile time trial league.
Although numbers were down, due largely to a change in date because of the tour series event taking place in Peterborough, it was fine night for cycling – and those that attended reaped the rewards.
Just eight seconds separated second-placed Chris Ward, who set a new PB of 22.00mins, and overall winner Neil Palmer.
His time of 21.52mins was a scant seven seconds slower than the course record time he set at round three.
Behind them, a battle ensued for third place between Andy Bowser and Ben Moore. It was Bowser who took the spoils, improving to 23.29mins from his previous PB of 23.54mins, while Moore finished inside 24 minutes for the first time (23.52mins).
The only other category represented on the night – the under-16 boys – was won by Matt Ellis. He was sixth overall with a fine 25.02mins, while Will Gurney, who rode using TT bars for the first time, was second on 28.26mins ahead of M Hull (29.31mins) in third.
As was the norm on the night, the top three all clocked impressive PBs.
Other club members to set PBs were Andrew Gurney (24.40mins), the ever-improving Ross McGivern (25.42mins) and Mark Hills (26.19mins).
Meanwhile, new member N Tooley had better luck after the DNF in round six and narrowly missed out on getting inside 30 minutes, posting a PB time of 30.03mins.
Spalding’s super-vet Bill Wood completed the club line-up in 32.01mins.
Of the guest riders, Ian Fensom (Fenland Road Club) was fastest in 24.22mins, while Dave Wright (29.07mins) and Rex Stamp (29.08mins) eventually finished just one second apart.
- Round five of the Mud, Sweat and Gears Mountain Bike Cross Country Series was held at Thetford Forest, attracting almost 400 riders to a number of races on a dusty circuit of forest trail and fire break roads.
Although not quite so technically challenging as other circuits, the day was not without incident as two crashes marred the men’s race.
Spalding’s Stewart Elderkin finished in 59th place, posting a time of 1.24.01hrs, while second claim member Matt Ellis (riding for Sherwood Pines SRAM RT) took a fine second place in the youth male, covering four laps in 53.46mins.
