We had 5 members competing, one in a Ironman Triathlon (not our usual report) 112 mile TT after a swim and before a marathon!, the others in Time Trials and Road Races.
It's great to see all the results and please keep sending them in. We are compiling a results spreadsheet which will be available on the website soon. All of this should wet your appetite for Abbo this Thursday.
Nic Pillinger Sat 22nd Apr Texas Ironman 9th place in 45-49 age group (133rd overall)
On Saturday 22nd April, club member and time trialist Nic Pillinger bookended his 112 mile ride with a 2.4 mile swim and a 26.2 mile ride at the Texas Ironman. The cooler weather in recent days made the swim wetsuit legal, but wind on the bike course and blazing sun in the afternoon made for challenging conditions.
The bike course included a section of 80 miles up and down the Hardy Toll Road (a closed section of three lane highway on the outskirts of The Woodlands north of Houston). As a regular on our local F2 & E2 courses, Nic was very much at home and put in a strong performance on two wheels.
Finishing in a combined time of 9:54:49 Nic secured 9th place in his 45-49 age group (133rd overall), good enough to qualify the Ironman World Championship in Nice - although he has no intention of racing Ironman again any time soon!
Nic’s race splits:
Swim 1:18:03
Bike 4:43:10
Run 3:41:35
Shaftsbury Open TT - F2A/25 22nd April 2023
Report by Shaun Jarvis
The field was a good size with 8 women and 77 males competing.
Two riders from St.Neots CC competed; Mark Greenhow and myself (Shaun Jarvis).
Conditions were pleasant, with a calm breeze, sunshine and reasonably low air pressure.
Mark Greenhow finished in 56:05 placing 34th overall and 33rd in the VTTA results.
I finished in 51:25 placing 14th overall, 7th Handicap, and improving my personal best by 2 minutes and 52 seconds.
It has been a good start to the time trial season, however, heightens the pressure for the coming months!
Report by Mark Greenhow
This was my first outing on the TT bike this year so I wasn't really sure what to expect, I'd made a few small changes to the bike over the winter and had a pretty consistent winter of what I loosely call training but a shakedown ride the weekend before left me feeling not very confident I could even break the hour.As it turned out the weather was pretty good on the day and I managed a time of 56.05. I felt it was a fairly solid start to the season, I did manage a 54 on this course last season and I'm hoping when the weather warms up a bit and I hopefully get a bit fitter I can improve on this ride a little bit. Shaun Jarvis from the club also rode this event and put in a superb ride for a time of 51.24, so well done to Shaun, he seems to be getting faster with every ride.
Pat Ellerbeck BM Stallard Road Race 46.6 miles Sun 23rd Apr
A trip out to Welland just south of Worcester for the 1st BM stallard race of the season, pleased with the ride, on the front for much of the race and outsprinted at the finish, looking forward to next year when I go up an age group. Good power figures better go time trialling 😜😜
Anastasia Bowler Women's British Team Cup race 1st round at Virginia Waters Sun 23rd Apr 53 miles 11th of 68
A race report from the first round of the Women's British Team Cup at Virginia waters:
I raced the first round of the Women's British Team cup on Sunday, hosted by Twickenham CC. 10 laps of a relatively flat course to make up 53 miles in yet another strong field.
Our team aim was to try and stay at the front of the peloton and not let any breaks go without us. At about 5 laps a crash happened and unfortunately my teammate had her wheel taken out from underneath her. She got back on but ended up in the chase group, along with another one of my teammates who got caught behind the crash. At this point another girl took off on a solo breakaway, and her teammates did an excellent job of sitting on the front and slowing us all down. They covered all of our attacks and we eventually realised we were not bringing her back. Coming into the final sprint, there was a small hill beforehand, I positioned myself well and sprinted into 11th spot (10th in the bunch!). Pretty happy with that considering a starting field of 68, and a stacked field. Onto the next...