16th Jul 14 – P841r results

Shall we, shan’t we? What a day!

You might think it easy to put on a small event like ours, week after week. After all, we just turn up, put out some signs and get everyone signed on don’t we?

No! We ensure we have enough volunteers, look at weather forecasts, see what the actual weather does, drive the course and finally sign everyone in.

Monday seemed like it was autumn with rain rain rain, but it was forecast to clear which it did…

Tuesday morning we had more rain, hmm, not in my forecast! Of course, all the rain left our course with plenty of water on it and a couple of the roads leading on were flooded. Fortunately the course itself dried up, so, with Stoke road flooded in it’s usual spot, all competitors would have to do is take the alternative route down Lye Lane to get to the start. There was still wind and rain around though, frequent checking of the rain radar apps was made and it looked like the inclement weather was going around us.

Then !! During sign on we had reports of roadworks … on the course !! Subsequent sightings clarified these to be the short mobile works where they put out a cone whilst doing a quick job then moving on. Phew!

On to the Time Trial. The ride out was significantly different to initially expected. The stronger winds when we originally left to get to the venue had gone and we had a mix of sunshine and clouds. Lye Lane was “interesting” and you certainly couldn’t use it as any part of warmup.

Right – on to the TT itself. 12 riders turned out, which given the preceeding weather was more than expected, for what turned out to be a great evening. Chris and Lynn syncronised watches then Chris set off the riders with Derek holding the riders whilst Lynn hotfooted to the finish. Riders raced along the course with only minimal headwind for the return for John to spot and Lynn and Chris to note down times.

Whilst we headed back to HQ for our tea & cake, John carried on his duty and collected all the course signs in before making his way back too. Meanwhile, John (another one) was at HQ serving up said tea & cake for the exhausted competitors assisted by Derek in clearing away.

Huge thank you to all the event officials for turning out again and making the evening work for us.

Well done James for taking the line honours with a time of 22min 42 seconds – a clear minute and a half lead over second place.