With Richardsons CC fast man Mark Grange working late and unable to race, it was left to the fastest riders from two other local clubs to contest the victory in the second event in the King of Speed series, a 10-mile time trial from Musham Bank. Dave Thompson from Scarborough Paragon went of last rider but one, with the in-form Matthew Enticknap of Malton Wheelers last off. Richardsons CC’s hopes of a fast time rested on the shoulders of Carl Martin, riding his first time trial since last summer.
Riding his first time trial ever was Richardsons CC mountain biker Phil Clark, who did turn up on a road bike and also had plenty of miles in his legs from his recent Coast to Coast ride. His immediate rivals were David Schubert and Toby Boyes, and it was anybody’s guess what order they’d finish in.
Conditions were much better than last week - reasonably warm, with with a fairly light northerly breeze. This course isn’t as fast as the 5-mile course, despite overlapping it, as there are more roundabouts. But it was still reasonably quick, with a great ‘kicker’ at the start courtesy of a nice down slope.
First back to the timekeepers was Toby Boyes. As it was 10 minutes after the start, we feared that someone had fallen off. But no: Toby had chest problems and needed to pack rather than persevere in pain.
First rider back who had done the whole course was Dave Thompson, who had caught and dropped his mintue man Carl Martin, followed shortly by Matthew Enticknap and then close together David Schubert and Phil Clark, who wasn’t far off catching him. Apologies to Phil for getting his time wrong at the finish: with Toby a DNF (did not finish) I had Phil down as number 2 whereas he was actuallly number 3, so he went one minute quicker than the initial timesheet said. But I’ve corrected it now.
The results were:
1 Dave Thompson (Paragon) 22:49 (26.3mph)
2 Matthew Enticknap (Malton) 23:24 (25.64mph)
3 Carl Martin 24:12 (24.79mph)
4 Phil Clark 28:27 (21.09mph)
5 David Schubert 30:11 (19.88mph)
DNF Toby Boyes
A strong ride from Dave Thompson, a good performance from Carl given his time away from the TT bike, and a cracking first ride from Phil Clark. David Schubert, meanwhile, could yet be the rider to beat in the ‘best improver’ category.
Next Monday things move up a gear with a 25-mile TT from Irton.
Thanks to Tom Stockill and Hazel Grange for helping with the marshalling.
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