The club ran an open 25 mile time trial on U86/25 as part of the WTTA Hardriders Series. The course runs from Little Somerford – Malmesbury – back to Brinkworth – Gaydon – Minety – Malmesbury to finish just past Clay Street near Little Somerford. It is a very rolling course with some interesting road surface on the run in to the Minety crossroads.
We had a large field of 60 riders which is back to pre-COVID levels and courtesy of Ali Simmons (local farm owner) we had sufficient parking on one of her fields, which is just as well as Little Somerford does not have much parking. All riders had a great race and several very appreciative messages have been received:
I just wanted to write and thank you for a beautifully organised event. I am always so grateful when courses are very clearly signed and marshalled (having zero sense of direction). And, thank you very much to all your kind volunteers who gave up their Sundays to ensure that we had fun. What a lovely day out.
As mentioned our events could not run without our timekeepers, helpers and the observers out on the course. This year was particularly pleasing to me as we had several new members come along and help out for the first time (and they don’t even time trial). That of course is the ethos of being in a club, lending a hand and giving up of your own time occasionally to help out. I think that our new helpers were well inducted into the sport. Nick into the mysteries of the start with riders asking him if he thought they were ringers and then reading out times at speed as I mistyped the times into the results system, John into the wonders of standing on an over signed roundabout (and he helpfully bought all the signs back in) and David into standing on a clearly signed left turn (whilst wondering why he was need 2 riders still said which way!). Without the support of my club mates I could not run these events. So thank you again to those who gave up their time and for those who are wondering about it, there are plenty more opportunities this season.
As to the results the full list of results are on CTT system; Results
Jake Sargent of Team Bottrill Nopinz was the overall winner in a time of 51:54, just beating his team mate Rob Francis by 4 seconds. Jake therefore won the Harry Hunt Memorial Tankard which has not been presented for a few years as it used to be for the club open 50 which has not been run for many years. The first woman rider was Laura Pittard of Team Bottrill Nopinz in a time of 1:05:49. In the road bike categories first open winner was Neil Parker of Swindon Wheelers in a time of 58:23 and the first woman was Haley Wood of Bradford and Avon CC in a time of 1:17:51. The Team Prize went to Team Bottrill Nopinz with an overall time of 2:37:39, which is an impressive team time with all riders sub 54 minutes!
Mentions should also go to Matt Chapple who won the Gary Woodward Trophy as the fastest Chippenham Wheelers in the event with a time of 55:03 and to Joanna Meier for completing her first 25 mile time trial in a time of 1:19:59 and by finishing allowing Chippenham Wheelers to come in as 6th team out of 8 teams (James Eccleston was our third rider) with an overall time of 3:16:49.
The farmers field parking.