The final club 25 for this year was held last Tuesday. Fastest of the 33 riders was ex international Mark Lovatt (Planet X) who started his career with Congleton Cycling Club. He completed the two lap undulating course in 57 minutes and 16 seconds. Steve Hulme 58:23, just beat Ben Norbury 58:25 for top club member spot, with Rob Dale taking third place points in 1:00:39.
Pete Smith, 1:3:00 was only 5 seconds behind Rob at half distance but he had already ridden the VTTA 30 with a 25 mph ride the same afternoon!
Ben, who leads the scratch league from Steve and Wayne Powell, has also moved into top spot in the handicap league from Angelo de Angelis and Joe Langford. Steve now ties with Angelo at the top of the Veterans category, with Edgar Reynolds in third.
Competition for fastest lady was also close, with Sue Blake 1:14:52 narrowly beating Denise Hurst 1:15:23. Sue leads the ladies league from Denise and Claire Thompson.
Mark Allen was top junior in 1:8:50 from Tristan Roberts who did a massive PB of 1:9:58 to take the top handicap spot with a nett time of 45:20. Joe Langford insisted on riding despite not being well, took the third junior spot, but is still the junior league leader, ahead of Mark and Tristan.
Steve Sladin was the only other rider to achieve a PB on a course not known for them, and was second on handicap on the night. He attributed his 1 min 22 sec improvement to “shaving his legs”, although the aero helmet and recent bike fit advice from Pete Smith might have had something to do with it.
This was the 15th event of the club season. Riders best 15 results count in the league tables, so the rankings can be expected to change rapidly in the remaining 4 weeks.
Thanks to the event volunteers (9) and the Ken Norbury for the photos and Adrian Pennington for video at the Congleton turn.
Tristan Roberts