Top Tens in the Sid Latchford

Luke gets the upper hand

It was the first day of British Summer Time yesterday but despite the mild temperatures, the weather was quite simply awful. 50mph+ gusts of wind and driving heavy rain were not conducive to fast times.

We had two non-starters out of 5 on the start sheet and thankfully they were not the strongest 2 so we came up 2nd in the team competition. 5th, 7th and 11th was a great team performance and the field was considerably stronger than last year, with Arctic-Tacx Racing Team turning out in force. It's no shame losing the top spot to them.

Team
1 Arctic Tacx RT 2:39:10
2 TMG Horizon CT 2:46:26
3 Icknield RC 2:55:35
4 Hemel Hempstead 2:58:43
5 Berkhamstead CC 3:03:39
6 Berkhamstead CC 3:11:15
7 Hemel Hempstead 3:14:18
8 Bossard Whs 3:18:15
9 Bossard Whs 3:47:51

Won by none other than former National Hill Climb Champion Tejvan Pettinger of Sri Chinmoy CT, the event has grown dramatically since its first running last year. With the team at Hemel Hempstead Cycling Club doing a great job, it looks set to become the definitive early season 'Hard Riding' event.

Ross trying to stay upright on The Ivinghoe Beacon hairpin

1 80 Tejvan Pettinger Sri Chinmoy CT 0:51:25
2 90 Michael Broadwith Arctic Tacx RT 0:51:32
3 75 Danny Axford Arctic Tacx RT 0:53:21
4 65 Richard Wood Arbis-Colbert 0:53:52
5 81 Luke Clarke TMG Horizon CT 0:54:09
6 66 Tim Bayley Arctic Tacx RT 0:54:17
7 60 Ross Clarke TMG Horizon CT 0:55:00
8 48 Jason Green Beds Road CC 0:55:17
9 76 Tim Davies Icknield RC 0:55:19
10 69 Harry Paine Team Corley Cycles 0:56:40
11 72 Paul Caton TMG Horizon CT 0:57:17
12 33 Matthew Bond Kenton RC 0:57:19
13 31 Jon Friend Beds Road CC 0:57:24
14 25 Ian Turner North Road CC 0:57:53
15 71 John Lacey Hemel Hempstd CC 0:57:54
16 67 James Fox CC Luton 0:58:00
17 57 Ben Nichol High Wycombe CC 0:58:07
18 77 Mike Wragg Arbis-Colbert 0:58:10
19 78 Geoff Reynolds Hemel Hempstd CC 0:58:24
20 45 Grant Orsborn Icknield RC 0:58:30 

After losing the Millennium Trophy to Ross last year, Luke seems to be back in force, taking over 50 seconds out of his older brother.

5th Place for Luke - our fastest rider

His 54:09 includes a smashed rear disc wheel - the result of an argument with a pothole: "It was pretty crazy out there today," he said afterwards. The disc made it really tough - you were fighting the wind in so many places."

Paul Caton agreed: "It was so nice to get back to a warm HQ. Top marks to the organisers who had the great idea of using the Red Lion." Thanks also to Davey Jones for the pics.

Finally, an honourable mention to 'our' Ian Baynes and family who helped out with the marshalling at Dagnall roundabout. They had to put up with some very difficult conditions too.

Win for Paul at Flèche Waltonne

Hitting the top step with some early form

It was a longer than usual trip up to Leicestershire for Paul yesterday but he's a regular at the Flèche Waltonne event which, using quiet roads and a few segments of rougher stuff, has become a well established favourite with a spring classic feel amongst a select group of hardened 'specialists'.

Thankfully, the weather was a bit kinder than 2 years ago

"I really like the circuit," he explains. "It's demanding enough to get rid of any passengers. The sections of rougher surfaces are like mini climbs - that's where it starts to line out a bit."

By the finale, the main field had been whittled down to a pretty select bunch. Paul was careful not to be over confident and bided his time: "You have to time the sprint absolutely right," he continues. "As a group, we were all pretty closely matched so there wasn't much margin for error."

"He'd been looking fresh and dangerous all day," a fellow rider said afterwards. "It was a well deserved win."

Just time to raise the arms

Thanks to Paul Burgoine and velouk.net for the pic. More pics here and full result here