Events 2008
The fourth and last club time trial of the 2008 season was held on the morning of Saturday 26 July, on the Newchurch course. Six riders competed, two of whom rode in Thornton colours and four in Rye & District Wheelers’ shirts. Weather was cool and dry with very little wind. Results were: Ten-mile time trial results 2008 Saturday 26 July 2008
Thornton RC’s penultimate time trial of the season was held on the Newchurch course on the evening of 15 July 2008. Seven riders participated, including David Wheeler, who set a new course record of 22 min 6 sec. The complete results were as follows: Ten-mile time trial results 2008 Tuesday 15 July 2008
Club time trials during April (April 19, Saturday morning, and April 29, Tuesday evening) had to be abandoned because of heavy rain, which deterred all potential riders. Notwithstanding balmy but blowy weather on the Saturday of the club’s only June time trial (28 June) only three riders attended. Results are shown below. Ten-mile Time Trial Results 2008 Saturday 28 June 2008
During April, May, and June, club riders participated in time trials of other clubs, namely Ashford Wheelers and Rye & District Wheelers. Their respective websites provide summaries of the results.
Ten-mile Time Trial Results 2008 Saturday 5 April 2008
March 15 and 16: an active weekend
Southborough & District Wheelers hosted an open 10-mile time trial on the Tenterden Q10/33 course on the afternoon of 15 March 2008. Of the 61 riders on the start sheet, 56 turned up to start and finish the ride, of which two were tricycle riders, three were ladies (including veteran ladies) and two were male juveniles. That left 39 male veterans and 10 non-veterans in the field. The overall winner was Reg Smith (DCB – Kent), a veteran of 61 and a former professional rider, whose time was 22 min 27 sec. Thornton RC fielded three riders – Don Houghton, Russ Mason (veteran) and Eric Bates (veteran) – who were respectively fortieth (28:29), forty-fourth (28:59) and forty-fifth (29:01) overall. On veteran standards however, Eric Bates was joint twelfth and Russ Mason was thirty-first. Russ took third place for improvement over best. Not only is Q10/33 known as a fast course (only one left turn), but weather conditions on the day were warm and dry, with everyone benefitting from a gentle east wind in the second half of the course. Hardly surprising therefore that 34 male veterans out of 39 performed better than their standards, and only five were worse. A summary of Thornton results follows:
Summary of Southborough & District Wheelers 10 mile TT 15-03-08
By next day, Sunday 16 March 2008, the bike-swift weather of Saturday had morphed into leaden cold rain driven by a gusting south wind, which was of great assistance on the outward ride of the three-up 25-mile team time trial on the Old Romney-Brenzett-Ashford-Old Romney course, but enervating during the return. Thornton RC had one team competing in the ride, incorporating Colin Tuckwell, Steven Butt, and Michael Pumphrey. The team completed the ride in a very respectable 1 hr 4min 47 sec. David Wheeler, normally a Thornton rider, participated in this time trial as a member of a composite team that included Malcolm Whitehead and Nick Collins. Clocking a splendid 56:31 for the ride, the composite nature of the team (i.e. not under the aegis of one particular club) meant that although it set the third fastest time, it did not formally qualify for third place. An unfortunate formality but a gratifying result, especially for Dave Wheeler who had also clocked sixth place in the VC Elan Hilly 22 ride on 9 March. Thornton RC Time Trial Dates 2008 Six time trials are proposed for 2008, all of which will be held on the club’s Romney Marsh 10-mile course based at Newchurch Village Hall (course Q10/8). Details are given in the table below. Participants should sign in at Newchurch Village Hall about half an hour before start time. The start of the course is about two miles south of Newchurch, halfway up the lane that meets the main road just less than half a mile southwest of St Mary in the Marsh. The course passes northeast through St Mary in the Marsh to the first junction, turns north to Newchurch, where it turns west past Brooker farm and Lodgeland farm to Poplar Farm. Here the course turns to the southeast, through Ivychurch to the first turning on the left, from whence it is two miles to the finish.
New Year’s Day Time Trial (10 miles) Forecasts of wet and windy weather had preceded the Southborough & District Wheelers’ New Year’s Day 2008 10-mile time trial on the Bethersden/Singleton/Bethersden course. When the day arrived however, so did new hope and anticipation. There had been overnight rain sufficient to wet the roads, but the south/southeast wind was hardly noticeable, and persistent low cloud meant that late morning temperatures exceeded 5° Celsius. In other words, conditions were better than expected for the sixty cyclists who started the ride. Fifty-eight riders finished. Thornton Road Club fielded five riders, including two non-veterans (Luke Klugman and Dave Wheeler), and three veterans (Russ Mason, Eric Bates, and Michael Pumphrey). At 70, Eric Bates was the oldest rider in the time trial. Average time for the 35 male veterans (average age 52) was 27:50, a time that exceeded the standard for that age by 9 seconds. By contrast, the four female veteran riders (average age 54) achieved an average time of 34:19, which was 4 min and 3 sec slower than the standard for that age. Surprisingly, non-veteran males, fourteen in all, achieved an average time of 27:55, which was five seconds greater than the veterans’ average time. The five non-veteran females who completed the field, had an average time of 33:46. The fastest rider overall was Sean Yates, at 22:50 – an excellent ride that was also a valedictory one. At the presentations after the ride, he announced his formal retirement from cycling. VC Deal won the fastest team award, and Thornton rider Russ Mason gained second place for the greatest improvement over his four-seasons’ best. All Thornton RC riders’ results are shown below.:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
