LWCC Hill Climb, Brighton Big Dog and racing round-up
Lewes Wanderers annual Hill Climb took place on Monday 5th August. Disappointingly only a dozen riders turned up to race up the fearsome slopes of Firle Beacon on what was a fine, but windy, evening, although it was still a well contested event.
Winner, and the only rider under five minutes, was Joe Benians in 4 minutes and 56 seconds, but he was closely followed by Paul Fletcher in 5:05.1, Ed Tuckley in 5:13.3 and Brad Dickinson in 5:20.8.
The other riders from the host club were 7th placed Dom Lowden (5:41.7), 9th placed Graham Faultless who fell just 0.6 of a second outside of 6 minutes, David Wilkins (6:52.2), John Mankelow (7:05.5) and Dave Beale (7:07.3).
On the evening of Wednesday 7th August father and daughter Nick and Anna Dwyer competed in the a3crg Buriton 10 on the A3 in Hampshire. Nick finished 7th of the 50 male competitors in 20:02 while Anna’s time of 24:05 left her 10th of the 14 female entrants.
Lewes Wanderers at Brighton Big Dog
Saturday 10th August was the date for the annual Brighton “Big Dog” - a six hour mountain bike race around the steeply wooded slopes of Stanmer Park on the eastern outskirts of the city.
Just for once Lewes Wanderers had a sizeable representation with nine budding mud-pluggers assembled for the noonday start. The event could be tackled solo, in pairs or in teams of three taking turns as and when necessary, and it was this third and final option that they lined up in.
Despite a yellow weather warning for the south coast the rain had dissipated and the gale force winds were barely perceptible in the shelter of the thick woodland, although there was a lot of tree debris littering the course.
The trio of Mark Frost, Duncan Fuller and Dom Lowden fared best finishing 12th out of the 23 teams of adult men having completed eight laps within the time limit. Duncan shone in particular as all three of his laps were under 39 minutes. Despite gear selection issues on his third circuit Mark also managed a sub-40 tour while Dom contributed the other two laps.
Darren Haynes went over the handlebars coming out of a “bombhole” at the end of his team’s very first lap, but he picked himself up to complete that circuit plus one other. Richard Frost survived two circuits without serious incident while Paget Cohen suffered a puncture on the third of his laps, but replaced the tube to bring the team’s total laps to seven within the time limit and give them 19th place.
Christy Cairns led the third threesome away before passing the metaphorical baton onto Nick Dwyer. Sadly for them their other team member Rob Pelham severely overcooked it coming out of the same “bombhole” that had caught Darren out and Rob had to be helped to the on-site paramedics and latterly driven to hospital for precautionary checks which hereby ended that team’s challenge.
In Sunday morning’s East Sussex Cycling Association 100-mile time trial incorporating the Veteran Time-Trial Association Surrey/Sussex Championships) Lewes Wanderer Peter Baker came 15th out of 23 finishers in a time of 4 hours 36 minutes and 22 seconds. Club-mate John Mankelow was one of three non-finishers, but club-member Lisa Davis, albeit racing for trainSharp won the ladies event in 4:30:53.
