Thanks to Dave for the following report on various events – well done Carl, Dave and Mark, as well as all our TT riders!
Former W.V. rider Carl Ruebotham,won the Welsh national 100ml time trial championships on Sun, in a stunning time of 3hrs-44mins-23secs,not sure if this is a personal best. The course was hilly and the weather humid: if it had been windy it would have been a lot slower. Ruebotham’s time today has moved him from 4th in the Best all rounder competition to 3rd and should move his team into 1st place so a very well done from all at W.V. we wish him well.
Two veteran road men, Mark Thompson and Dave Astles both went to Gent, Belgium to ride the World age related road race championships, these champs are raced on 10yrs age band and are much sought after. Both riders rode 2 events as prep for the Sun worlds. A very promising start for both riders at Beveran on Friday saw both in good form. From 70 starters, Thompson finished 10th and Astles 11th at half a length.
Sat both started the hilly crit at Aspelara. Astles felt his efforts from Friday and climbed off leaving Thompson to continue and finish in a very creditable 17th place.
The temperatures had been in the high 20s, sunny and warm, but Sunday brought a big change in the weather: both riders were aghast at the heavy rain, which was at the start and continued for 4hrs, Astles was out of contention as early as the 3rd corner on the 1st lap when a pile up of riders went down and the bunch was split in 2. Thompson was lucky and was in the lead group of some 40 riders, Astles and the rest of the others set about catching them but were unable and to Astles’ credit kept going and won the bunch sprint for 54th place.Thompson was active in the lead group and finished strongly in 26th place, in the still pouring rain. The rain did eventually stop for the 40yrs-49yrs and the sun came back out, to everyone’s relief. On the way back to the ferry at Dunkirk both riders started the Destelburgan crit and again Thompson finished in the top 20 in 17th place, whilst Astles finished in the main bunch. 4 races in 5 days plus the travelling left both riders very tired but after a few days’ rest should see both riding at Seighford on Tuesday night.
The Guardian cup leader has changed hands after Wednesday’s result with new comer Nigel Woodacre taking the lead from Mark Chapman. Fastest on the night was Dave Fearon with a fast time of 23mins-41secs,pb followed by Matt Hornby 24mins-29secs,with 15 riders started and 9 p.b.recorded the series is proving just as popular as ever.