Medway Velo retained the inter club time trial trophy following a tight contest on a warm evening on the Isle of Grain course. Their margin of victory of 90 seconds showed the strength in depth of both the velo and Wigmore teams.
With the first six riders from each club counting towards a cumulative time, velo were able to turn out ten riders to compete, while six Wigmore riders took to the start line to represent their club.
Steve Smith, making a rare midweek competitive outing, took first place and lead the velo home with an impressive 21:29, catching his minute man, and first Wigmore rider Rodney Smith on the finish line.
Rodney Smith was the first in a group of four fast Wigmore riders, Keith Walker, Dave Bishop and Richard Masters, who all came home in under 24 minutes, with Alex Cook separating this group with his time of 23:41.
Lee Kingston and Rob Kennison were the two other velos who also rode sub 24 minute times, whilst fastest junior was Sam Painter of the Wigmore, who was their fifth counting rider.
Race organiser Phil Booth was velo’s fifth rider, whilst Fraser Blandford rode a 25 minute ten to be the final velo counting towards the team result, whilst Nick Howlett’s 27 minute ride completed the Wigmore team’s time.
Keiran Lawler, Karl Ford, Neil Ord and Sally Smith also all rode strongly to contribute to a great evening, Sally in particular broke 20mph for the first time since returning to racing.
After the race velo Time trial secretary Phil Booth commented “thanks to everyone who rode the event this evening, and also to all of those from the velo and Wigmore who assisted with the smooth running of the race. It was a sign of the great team spirit in the velo that we all shared in each other successes, and everyone who rode contributed to the overall result.”
Results of the event can be seen in the post below.
Elsewhere, on Tuesday another lovely warm, but breezy evening greeted Rich and Matty Stokoe at North Weald Aerodrome . Wind was blowing across circuit this time making positioning in bunch crucial. Matty started well in the B group deciding to give the faster group a try this week and did well for holding his own . The pace increased, and he dropped back to the c group . Matty contested 2 primes but didn’t have any luck this time.
Matty commented afterwards he didn’t quite have the legs for the faster group, however I am sure all velo members and friends will follow his progress with interest.
Rich started in the B group alongside Matty and kept out of trouble towards the front; a few breaks went but were wheeled in. Rich managed a third place in one prime but was happy sitting towards the front of the bunch. With the lighter evenings the race time was increased to 70 mins plus 5 laps which worked out to just short of an hour and a half. The Bs were caught by the front of the fast group just after the half way point, and Rich managed to stay with them up to 4 laps to go when the pace told, and the bunch split. Rich’s group of 7 rode round to the finish eventually thinning out to just three . After his race Rich remarked it was the hardest race he’d done considering the time and was happy with an 22.5 mph average.
Well done Rich and Matty.
