Evening 10s Rd 2 and racing round-up
The second of three evening 10-mile time-trials organised by Lewes Wanderers in an attempt to salvage something of the cycle-racing season took place on Monday 20th July, although roadworks prompted a late switch back to the traditional A22-based course.
The warm and dry weather tempted 44 competitors out to pit their fitness against the stopwatch of which 27 were from the host club. The event also incorporated the club’s “road bike 10” with 16 racers opting to race without the benefit of time-trial bikes, “tri-bars”, deep-section wheels or time-trial helmets.
Behind overall winner Matthew Smith in a scorching time of 20 minutes and 34 seconds four other riders snuck under 21 minutes with 5th placed Rob Rollings (20:58) just edging Brett Davis (6th in 21:03) for club bragging rights.
Kate Parrish by Emma Gearing
Fastest female by a distance was Brett’s wife Lisa who placed a superb 7th overall in 23:38. Runner-up amongst the Lewes ladies was Kate Parrish in 32nd with 25:48 ahead of Kate Thomas (36th in 26:21) and Gina Boakes (40th) who set a new personal best of 27:27. Ed Tuckley (20th) was the only Lewes male to set a new personal best with a time of 23:40.
The road bike category was also won by a guest rider - Robert Lovett in an impressive 22:23. Clear winner among the home contingent was AIdan McConville in 22nd overall in 23:56. It was very tight for second place however with Alan Lester (30th in 25:41) just getting the better of 31st placed Guy Brown (25:44), Neil Edwards in 33rd (25:55) and Peter Fox (34th in 26:00).
The previous day Brett, Lisa and Sally Turner had all ventured up to Cambridgeshire to take part in the Shaftesbury CC 50-mile event along the A11 near Newmarket. Despite the miserable weather all three came away with personal bests for the distance. Lisa posted a time of 1 hour 56 minutes and 52 seconds to place 58th overall and 5th of the 17 female competitors, just one place ahead of Sally in 1:57:38. Brett’s new best of 1:48:25 gave him 29th out of the 62 racers to finish.
