The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Awful weather throughout the day didn’t stop 12 riders from taking on Spalding Cycling Club’s Drop Bar Challenge event.
A massive success in 2015 with good weather and a large field, numbers were sadly down this year.
The rule of the event is to use only standard road bikes and equipment in a bid to re-create the feel of 1970s time trialling – and it always produces a few surprises.
Many people who have only ever ridden time trials on Aero bikes have difficulty adapting to the same effort on a standard bike.
So, although the top three finishers were in roughly the same order as usual, their ride times were slower.
Indeed, it is those who race on standard road bikes regularly or can adapt to the position better who post times close to what they would usually finish with.
The overall winner was the 2015 champion Ben Moore, whose 24.37mins was 1.27mins quicker than last year.
Putting in a fine ride of 24.46mins earned second claim rider Matt Ellis second place. He was the only under-16 rider after Tom Wright pulled out due to illness.
Third spot was filled by Ross McGivern with 26.57mins. Both he and Ellis were some four minutes quicker than last time.
In the last few events, Richard Flatters and Gary Bentley have always posted very close times, swapping finishing order each week.
This time around it was Flatters who got the better of Bentley by seven seconds. as they finished with times of 28.14mins and 28.21mins.
Interestingly, the pair have both clocked 28.17mins in recent traditional time trial events.
Only two ladies started the event – but as Natasha Tooley’s choice of very deep section wheels did not comply with the event rules, her time of 30.05mins was ineligible for the competition times.
That left Nicole Flatters to head up the ladies’ results with 33.12mins – which was yet another personal best (PB) ride.
Meanwhile, Andy Bowser, – who piloted his mudguard equipped Condor to 27.51mins – saw his time matched exactly by Mark Hill. Both were quicker than in 2015.
Simon Wright clocked 28.05min, while Barry Drew managed 31.21mins.
Guest rider Chris Ward put in a fine time of 25.12mins to beating the effort he set as a club member in 2015 (26.27mins) by over a minute.
- With the Time Trial and Road seasons under way, Andy Barnard and Barry Drew rode the VTTA Notts and East Midlands 25.
Traditionally a course for fast times, a northerly wind put paid to many people’s chances.
Barnard and Drew finished toward the back of the 97-strong field, posting times just 12 seconds apart.
Their times of 1.09.25hrs and 1.09.37hrs were good enough for 89th and 90th places.
