Evening 10s Rd 5, Crits Rd 1 and racing round-up
Round 5 of Lewes Wanderers’ series of 10-mile time-trials took place on the evening of Monday 30th May on the triangular “Broyle Course”. There were sixteen riders, including thirteen from the host club, but only fifteen entrants for reasons that will become clear
Joe Benians (23:01) was three seconds slower than his winning time from Round 4, but he was still victorious both overall and in the road-bike category, but by a mere three seconds as Peter Baker and Kate Thomas teamed up on a tandem to so very nearly steal the spoils.
Gavin Richards took third spot on the podium and was fastest TT-bike in 24:43, ahead of Mike Hannay in 25:46 and 6th placed Graham Knowles (26:15). After them came a closely matched group of riders in the road-bike category. Graham Faultless (26:54) was 7th, ahead of 9th placed Charlie Middleton (27:26); Jamie Goldstein (27:30), Steve Barry (28:25) and debutant plus fastest individual female Emma Thorp (28:43). Paul Hanratty (13th, 28:47) and Dave Beale (14th, 29:12) were the other Wanderers to compete.
On Thursday 2nd June Lewes Wanderers hosted the first of their Criterium Race series for the summer on the traditional triangular course utilising The Broyle, Laughton Road and Shortgate Lane. There were 28 starters from 12 different teams with a duo representing the “home team”.
Mike Hannay by Paget Cohen
Sadly they were effectively a man-down on the first lap as Mike Hannay had swapped wheels from his warm-up to the race only to discover one of his brakes rubbing. It only took a few seconds to stop and remedy the issue, but by then the bunch had sped off, he was unable to regain contact and was one of five not to finish.
The first of three intermediate sprints took place on the second lap of five with Steve Kane (TMC-Strada Wheels) edging Benjamin Dewey (Sussex Revolution Velo Club) and Andrew Larking (also SVRC).
Next time around Nicholas Barratt (Tri-Surrey) beat Steve into second with Andrew again third. Steve proved the fastest again on lap 4 with Lewes Wanderer Joe Benians (racing for Southborough and District Wheelers) a fine runner-up and Benjamin in third.
Aside from a few stragglers the remains of the bunch were all together coming into the uphill finish on the Laughton Road where fellow-Wanderer Tom Moss was led-out by his S&DW team-mate Joe Benians (18th) for a fine victory. Steve Kane took a strong second and the clear lead in the overall standings with Morgan West (Folkestone Velo Club) in third and Lewes rider Richard Burchett a competitive 12th after regularly featuring near the head of the race.
That same evening a trio of Wanderers competed in an Eastbourne Rovers 10-mile time trial on the A22. Jamie Goldstein was 11th in 26:45; Paul Hanratty 16th in 27:52 and Peter Baker four seconds behind in 17th.
Brighton Mitre CC also hosted a similar event that night where father and daughter Nick and Anna Dwyer (Drag2Zero) were in action. Anna finished 21st of 38 in 24:05, but was the fastest female, while Nick was 10th in 21:06. Nick competed again on Saturday 4th, but over 50 miles in a Cambridge CC event. His superb time of 1:48:48 placed him 12th out of 87 racers as 49 entrants beat two hours.
