BMCC 10, ERCC 10 and SCA 10 and 25
Lewes Wanderers’ Mark Frost was the lone rider from the club to participate in the Brighton Mitre CC 10 mile time trial on the warm and sunny evening of Tuesday 1st May. On the A283 course, on the outskirts of Steyning, Mark clocked a fine time of 22 minutes and 26 seconds to claim 5th of the 26 racers. With the weather conditions still favourable and his form good Mark thought he’d try his luck again two nights later in Round 3 of Eastbourne Rovers’ series of 10 mile time-trials on the A22 course. In a display of admirable consistency Mark’s time of 22:35 placed him 8th out of the 27 to take part.
Lisa Davis by Tim Peters
It wasn’t quite as warm first thing on Saturday 5th May, but there were still glorious conditions for the Sussex Cycling Association 10 mile TT back on the A283 course near Steyning. Having come agonisingly close on more than one occasion this year Lewes Wanderers’ Lisa Davis took full advantage of the fast conditions to beat her personal best over the distance. Her time of 24 minutes and 15 seconds was 9 seconds quicker than her mark from 2017 and granted her 2nd place among the seven female entrants and 47th overall. She was joined on the ‘podium’ by clubmate Gina McGeever whose time of 25:14 placed her third among the ladies and 58th out of the 71 to start.
The Lewes gentlemen weren’t without success either. Rob Rollings scorched round in 21 minutes and 7 seconds to place 9th overall. Ably supported by 12th placed Nick Dwyer (21:19) and 14th Brett Davis (21:40) the trio claimed second place in the team competition, just 17 seconds behind the winners.
Gina and Rob were back on the start line 24 hours later for the Sussex Cycling Association 25 mile event. The SCA 25 uses the same course as the 10, but tacked onto the end of a 15 mile loop up through Partridge Green and back down the A24 to Washington. Neither showed signs of fatigue from their exertions from the day before nor wilted in the sun as Gina improved on her placing from the day before by one position in taking runners-up spot amongst the four female entrants thanks to her time of 1 hour 6 minutes and 27 seconds. Rob backed up his performance from Saturday with yet another 9th placed due to his blistering time of 54:53, just 15 seconds outside his personal best.
In 74th place of the 78 finishers was Lewes rider Charlie Middleton (1:09:34), one place ahead of clubmate Dave Beale (1:10:12). A result that enabled Charlie to close the gap marginally on Dave and move into second place in the club’s Middlemarkers competition - a season long competition for club members who have not recorded a sub-25 minute 10 mile time-trial nor ridden a 25 mile event in less than 1 hour and 5 minutes during the past 3 seasons. However Dave extended his lead in the overall standings after 5 of the 9 qualifying events as those two plus Gina were the only ones of the 15 riders to so far score points who scored any points in this event.
