An unpromising start to the day for the first of the season’s time trial series changed sufficiently to have 22 riders on the start line. The snow and frost had disappeared and there was only one big puddle to negociate.

After Ged McElwee punctured  just before the start, Mark and Phil – a slimmer than last year Phil – went off and were still out in front after the first lap losing only a minute to Mike and Glenn (Two minute starting intervals in two-ups).. In fact nobody caught anybody on the first lap, but there were a few much closer together.  Chris Whitelam is always the favourite (unfortunately Derek hasn’t entered the series so this only counts as a private ride) but there were only four seconds separating him from Andy and Steve. And there were only seven seconds separating Paul and Neil from Nathan and Mark, things were looking good as Karl and John were only a handful of seconds away as well.

After the first lap Calum lost his partner Mattie who succumbed to the call of the pits, as did Mike Pickering, leaving Sam to go it alone. But at the finish it was Chris and Derek who did the fastest time but only by two seconds. Neil, hopefully on a come-back trail, with Paul managed to hold on to their lead although they lost three seconds that last lap to Nathan and Mark. Karl and John slipped a bit further back but easily kept their position. Calum doing the second lap on his own and Vince and Tim still managed to get around before the 40 minutes were up – a good target for anyone at this time of the year. So, max points for the joint leaders Andy Barnes and Steve Macklin.