There have been better days to race on but this is an early season event, more useful for training, and the weather was what you can expect at this time of the year – snow, wind and cold. The wind was from the east making cross winds for 90% of the course and riders had to face snow showers.

First back were Steve Gore-Brown and Len Grayson not far short of doing a 57, an incredible ride by Len who shows terrific tenacity for a man of his age. To reckon how good then take in to account they caught Paul Kilvington and Neil Cleminshaw off two minutes and proceeded to take another two minutes out of them; and Paul and Neil’s 2 was not a bad ride at all.

Glen Turnbull and Rick King were next to take the leaderboard with a 55; when did these lads start training for this in these arctic conditions?  This was an extremely good ride when you measure it against whom I considered the race favourites, Julian Gromett and Steve Ward, starting ten minutes behind them, who returned adrift by 24 seconds. Steve owned up to having a bad cold, as did many of the field, but he can’t have gone as well as he expected.

Shouldn’t mention solo rides really but when Dave Hudson’s partner didn’t turn up he went around on his own and returned a 57.21. You can gauge that with the rest of the rides. I suppose many of the teams ride a two-up slower than they would ride solo because they haven’t practiced the technique; 4 up team trials are a lot easier. The secret is to make sure that neither of you go too deep in the red that you can’t recover – you’ve got more control riding solo.

I’ve used up nearly all of my superlatives so I don’t know what to say about Charlie Evans and Erik van Lakerveld’s ride – a 54 on day like this!! I’ve know Charlie for more than ten years, he was a good junior, always shows a lot of talent but doesn’t seem to hang on to his form. Erik is a Dutchman I believe and no doubt rides like one. I’d like to know who was the strong one of the team but the both finished as one. Who would be able to beat this?

Pete Smith and Mark Dicconson came out of hibernation to do a 5 and John Lockwood and Mick Adams, both suffering with some infection, almost stayed together to do a 9. Lee Cairns lost his partner Lewis Jackson and just squeezed into a 58, and our two youngsters Mark Walker and Phil Eden came back with a 15; at least Phil didn’t fall off this year.

New lad in the club David Galbraith, an Irishman no less, went round with Mark Robinson and came back with a very short 6, they must be satisfied with that but next was Steve Macklin and Andy Barnes returned a 57.35. Andy must be the most improved rider on the planet.

To see what the ladies could do, Helen Proctor with hubbie Andrew came in with a 6. But next was Chris Whitelam and Chris Burton with a really disappointing 2; I guess that either Chris W went to hard in the early sections of the race or Chris B didn’t warm up sufficiently before he started. Not easy to hang on to Chris Whitelam and much harder to have to work with him.

The next fast ride was from Derek Roe and Lee Watson with a 56. Derek is getting on a bit now and this is a good ride, he’s a strong guy and has been doing strength training on the bike longer than anyone else I know – it must have paid off.

The second lady to finish, Sarah Cramoysan with Nick Bates, doing a 1 shows a lot of early form and they must have been pleased with that. Our next team from the club were in next, Nathan Chester and Mark Summer who actually told me they enjoyed the ride. They did a 2 and were quite pleased with that, hoping maybe to better Neil and Paul’s time they were less than half a minute away. Never underestimate Neil, he has a good engine even though he might not be as fit as he once was.

Wayne Randle and Dieter Droger started but didn’t finish and there was only the local lads to look forward to. Martin Cockerill and Stewart Pickard did a 59 and then Matthew Fenton and Andy Faichney did a 1. Last riders Dave Compston and Ben Roberts did a 58 but I think Dave was a bit disappointed with that.

Mike Kilgour did a great job organising his first race and hopefully he enjoyed it enough to keep on doing it. Well supported I know the riders appreciated it. Team Swift Allsports are organising the national 100Km team time trial, a four-up, later in the year so get together lads and train for it. It’s a wonderful way to build up your speed.