The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Spalding Cycling Club concluded their summer season with the traditional Dash Down the Delph event.
A total of 20 riders – comprising four ladies, eight youth category riders and eight seniors – lined up for the usual format of individual sprint time trials over 250, 500, 750 and 1000 metres.
In contrast to 2015 there was little wind assistance for the competitors and it soon became clear from the early finishing times that, although slightly slower than last year, a fast day was nevertheless on the cards with fractions of a second separating some riders.
Inevitably fast times were posted by some, especially over the 250m course in which Jake Norton posted 21.14secs, just ahead of Will Gurney on 21.98secs.
First lady Tilly Gurney also posted an impressive 22.42secs and Mark Hills, the best senior rider, clocked 22.23secs.
For Norton and Gurney, their opening ride times continued to set the pattern for the remaining tests which measure the ability to recover and ride consistently hard repeatedly.
Both were fastest over all distances in their categories, finishing with aggregate times of 3.22.12mins and 3.54.34mins respectively – with Norton taking first place in the overall standings too.
Will Gurney’s steady riding, with results just slightly faster than his sister, meant that he eventually finished third in the Youth Category on 3.48.06mins, behind the 3.45.11mins recorded by Tom Wright.
The Senior podium was headed by Simon Wright who, despite a slow start in the 250m, used his strength to cover the longer distances effectively to finish in 3.35.17mins, while Andy Bowser posted faster times over the short distances to finish with 3.38.43mins.
Consistent efforts from Andrew Gurney over all four tests resulted in third overall with 3.43.50mins.
Second place in the ladies’ competition went to Susie Bowser in an overall time of 4.20.31mins, ahead of third-placed Natalie Tooley in 4.26.39mins.
Elsewhere, siblings Jack and Velvet Bowser had very similar times, especially over the short distances – but Velvet finally got the better of Jack in the 1000m race by two seconds.
Attention now switches to the cyclo cross season with the club hosting the second round of the Lincs League at the Gleed School on Sunday.
