After fine weather and a 25 mile event last week, it was back to 10 miles and typical Betteshanger weather this week. It was cool with a very blustery SW wind and the constant threat of rain, which fortunately didn’t arrive. The conditions had an effect on the number of riders signing on, with just 35 riders opting to battle the elements. Surprisingly, this included a field of 13 juniors.
Times were obviously affected by the conditions, and most riders were some way off their times from a couple of weeks earlier. Second claim member Chris Fennell headed up the senior times with 20.40, 30 seconds ahead of brother Nic, who was the quickest of the TRC riders with 21.10. Abbie Langley was the fastest woman with 29.01. Making a return to the club after a long absence was Nick Austin, grandson of the late Bert Spickett, one of the club’s former presidents. Nick achieved his aim of getting inside 30 minutes.
Tom Lowther was the best of the juniors with 23.43, just beating Toby Perry into second place by a mere 2 seconds. There was an encouraging turnout of 6 girls in the junior field, the first of which was Catherine Morrell with 29.04.
All the times can be found in the accompanying PDF files.
This week’s group of volunteers was Mike Kirkness, Nick Scott, Paul Griffiths, Malcolm Adams, Colin Robinson, Terry & Terry Fearn, Sue Shields and Dave Mastin.
Report by Dave Mastin.