After last weeks postponement in the face of a dire (and mostly inaccurate) weather forecast the Wheelers' hill climbers re-convened at Digswell. The weather was not very encouraging but, fortunately, there was next to no rain during the event. Gareth put everyone else in the shade with a time that bettered his 2017 effort by 2 seconds and equaling Karl Willis's 2014 time on the same course. Next came Barry, who had only come to spectate, but produced a very creditable time on his utility bike.
What a beautiful day! 14 riders turned up; I was terrified! Lovely to see Franco.
We had a great first half of the ride. Everyone was brimming with confidence and vitality. Then, Mick “the chain” Gornall, the inevitable happened - yes his chain came off!
Mark taught me about the gravitational pull of the moon and earth.
Lovely morning for a TT. Well done Ian Bailey for making his first effort.
Riding restricted
Steve Watson 27:35
Peter Walton 28:09
Not restricted
Barry Page 26:38
Ian Bailey 33:11
Barry's win and failure to participate in any earlier events wins him the coveted scrubbing brush. Steve and Peter survive to compete for the out of season best all-rounder trophy at the hill-climb on October 6th.
The category 2 team of 5 riders covered 60.2 miles on their tour of Essex at an average speed of 18.9 mph. It was a good testing ride, and the team team worked well together.
On the category 2 ride out to Gamlingay, Bedfordshire, we covered 80.2 miles, averaging 18.2 mph with 3400 ft of climbing approximately. It was a very windy ride, especially going out to Gamlingay, but the team worked well together. We had one puncture at the top of Coombe Road, Therfield. Overall, a good day in the saddle.
Nine riders met at Ware for a rather hot ride to High Easter. We lost one due to a chain gremlin but the rest carried on through Essex on good roads to our watering hole. We then lost another one who had a better offer of a BBQ in Halstead. The last of us rode back in temperatures equal to those in the Vuelta!
