Lancaster Cycling Club

It was a pretty good evening for time trialling at Salt Ayre this week. The rain forecast stayed away, the wind dropped & riding felt sticky but otherwise fast. Some good, personal best, times were certainly recorded. For example Sam Pugh of Garstang CC & Salt Ayre Cog Set, just turned 14, is getting faster every week; last night he rode his new time trial bike over ten miles to a PB 24:06, & he's bound to get faster still! 15 year old Malcolm Neil also rode to a PB, clocking 26:15.

With most of the Cog Set race team taking the night off, the 10 mile top 10 had an older feel to recent weeks. Andrew Horn was first in what could be the fastest 10 mile time ever recorded at Salt Ayre, 21:29; unless anyone knows better, that might be the first time someone's gone below twenty one & a half minutes. Second was Ian Sibbert, just short of his PB in 22:04; and third was fastest woman Lynn Hamel in 22:49. 3rd, 4th & 5th men were a tightly bunched Lancaster CC trio, Tim Norton (23:02), Steve Hodgson (23:04), & Mark Monkhouse (23:08).

An older rider was fastest over six miles too, with Brian Murray recording 14:41. Fastest of the youngsters was 13 year old Cog Set Youth B rider Evie Barrow in a fine 15:53, ahead of a trio of lads, Ben Pennance (16:06), James McCracken (16:22), & Adam Hodgson (16:27).

Quickest over two miles was 10 year old Max Davies in 6:04, followed by 9 year old Luke Oakes in 6:14 and fastest girl 9 year old Emilia Wood in 6:23. Third boy was Ethan Yates in 6:30, and 2nd & 3rd girls Megan Howarth (6:47) & Amelie Earnshaw (7:21).

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Finally, before the full results from the evening, a note from Bob Muir, Club President & time-keeper extraordinnaire:

"Thanks very much to those who took on marshalling duties tonight, some at very short notice – we could not continue to run the events in this format without the assistance of volunteers. Please don’t be shy at coming forward. Just contact Tim Norton or register on volunteer spot. On another note, the yellow timing box we use at Salt Ayre is - like any computer - pretty thick. It doesn’t know how far you are racing and just carries on waiting for you to cross the mat. So please, when you have a chip on your bike only cross the mat whilst you are racing. If you cross before you start it throws a "sulk" as it does not know what time you were due to start and thinks you completed the first lap in a negative time, and computers don’t like negative times! On the other hand if you have finished your distance and carry on lapping it merrily goes on adding lap times which makes me unhappy as I have to manually subtract the times to find out what time you did for the distance."

Another good night for the Jubilee Tower hill climb, with the threatened rain holding off & a good tail wind helping the riders up the climb, & to some fast times including - for those who have done this event before - many Personal Bests.

Dave Huck of Lakes RC, third placed by a whisker up last week's Conder Bottom climb, came out top this week, winning in 7:30.4. George Wharton riding for Kent Valley RC was second last week & second again this week, in 7:42.9. Craig Steele of Lakes RC & David Trotter of Lancaster CC were the only other riders to go under 8 minutes, tying for third place in 7:49.1. Their impressive times help you realize how remarkable is the current course record, set by former National Hill Climb Champion Tevjan Pettinger on the 4th October 2012, of 6:57.0 (an average speed of above 16 mph over the 1.7 mile climb). Following a tough weekend of racing that saw him get very close to breaking our Club's 10 mile record & within striking distance of the 25 mile record, last week's hill climb winner Ryan Coulton enjoyed a restful ride out to watch his clubmates & other riders digging deep on their way up from Quernmore crossroads to the Tower (you realize how long this climb is when, at the end of the evening, it's time to ride back down - even at downhill speed, it takes quite a while to retrace your racing trip!).

A further seven riders were under 9 minutes, including Lancaster CC's Tom Brook & John Hatton, and Cog Set's Ben Barlow & Jonny Wong. Fastest woman was multiple National Women's Hill Climb Champion Lynn Hamel of LUSSO in 9:42.5.

As usual, huge thanks to all those who helped out on the night; the event would not have happened without you. To see the full results, click on 'Read more' below. But meanwhile, here's the standings in this season's Inter-club Hilly competition after the third event, last week's Conder Bottom climb (so not including the Jubilee Tower results). As you can see, we used our home advantage to good effect!

The next event in the series is Barrow Central Wheelers' Coast Road 21 mile time trial on Wednesday 1st July at 7pm. The course follows the coast road (A5087) between Ulverston & Barrow, & includes 381 metres of ascent; for details go here. We'll need a few riders there if we're to retain our place at the top of the leader board!

Thursday evening this week was dry, moderately mild & slightly breezy; a reasonable night, in other words. No doubt there were others too, but certainly young William Statham earned a personal best, recording 6:52 over two miles, after a fair few weeks of 'short sevens'.

Fastest of the 22 riders over two miles, though, was Jack Tipler in 6:08, with Dylan Edwards four seconds back in 6:12. Ethan Yates took 3rd place in 6:35. Fastest girl was Emilia Wood in 6:48, one second faster than her brother Cameron, and 11 seconds quicker than 2nd placed girl Megan Howarth, with 3rd place going to Amelie Earnshaw in 7:20.

The top three of 20 riders over 6 miles were James McCracken (16:48), William Dykes (17:02) & Adam Hodgson (17:04). The fastest girl was Nancye Roberts in 19:48, with 2nd placed Esther Wong in 20:38.

Of the 39 riders tackling ten miles Andrew Horn was fastest in 21:54, from Ian Sibbert (22:31) & Ian Rutherford (22:35). First woman was Jenny Evans in 27:17, from Kerry Oldfield (28:14) & Louise Goddard (29:15).

Thanks to everyone for continuing to make Thursday evenings such great occasions. What better way to be enjoying the longest evenings of the year than sharing a love of cycling in such fine company!

Full results below.

We struck lucky for the first of LCC's two Club hill climbs, with a lovely dry & sunny evening for the ride from Conder Mill Bridge on the River Conder up the west side of Quernmore valley towards Lancaster. A good crowd gathered at the topmost turn, to cheer the riders as they passed. All up 37 riders rose to the challenge, and in the good if not perfect conditions three riders broke the two-minute mark. In first place was Ryan Coulton of Better Cycling in a time of 1 minute 56.8 seconds, exactly a second ahead of second-placed George Wharton riding for Kent Valley RC; with Dave Huck of the Lakes Road Club two-tenths of a second further back in third, 1:58.0. Their impressive times make you realize just how quick was Jack Pullar's course record ride of 1:37.2!

The overall results also make you realise just how significant Salt Ayre Cog Set has become to the local vibrancy of racing cycling. Four of last night's top 10 (George Wharton, Jonny Wong, Alex Chesters & Ben Barlow) belong to Cog Set's race team; and evidence that the talent keeps on coming was provided by the fine performance of youngest rider on the night, twelve year old Youth C rider Adam Hodgson (3:07.9).

The fastest of the three women was Sue Holden, riding her first hill climb, in 3:36.5.

Thanks to all those who helped on the night, & to those who came to cheer the riders on.

The second of our Club hill climbs, the longer ride up the other side of Quernmore valley to Jubilee Tower, is next Monday 22nd June, 7pm.

Full results below. Updated standings in the Inter-club hilly series will be published here once we have them.