The pesky Men’s Football World Cup interfered with the Evening Ten scheduled for the 1st of July, and should England progress to the quarter finals then that would see them playing on Wednesday 15th of July at 8pm, meaning we will have to decide what to do about the ‘Ten’ that evening. We will update this page when we know more.

Meanwhile a very warm late June evening on the 24th of June saw some good times despite the hear, or perhaps because of it, and an outing for Exeter Wheelers Luke Osborne who blew the field away with the only sub-22 minute ten on the course this year, flying around in 20 minutes and 40 seconds.

V50+ rider George Robb of promoting club CS Dynamo continued his good form with a time of 24:43, whilst series leader Stuart Pollard of Exeter Wheelers was just 6 seconds behind on 24:49 on his metal road bike.

Two female riders competed. Ayse Vahiboglu of EWCC was the faster, 25:31. Natalie Grainger of Royal Navy cycling rode a 26:58.

The next event is the 8th of July, full details of the series can be found by clicking here.

As we have lost two events we will be amending the number of results that will count towards the end-of-season league table. Again, we will update in due course.

Here are the results from the 24th of June –

and here is the current league table:

It was a return to duty for the Exeter Wheelers evening ten task force for race 5 of the series, but to be sure it’s not a bad thing to be doing, providing a race for such a convivial bunch of riders. Timekeepers Mike Rose, Ken Evans and Pete Bishop were joined by Ian Moore, Ann Owen, Phil Harris and Rod Saxby, who all marshalled. Rod would ideally like to be riding, but work commitments have limited his racing to the Margaret Baker/Four Firs Hilly this year. The good news is that he is retiring from work at the end of the year, and we am sure that we will be seeing some strong performances from him next year.

The conditions were better than average; whilst there was some breeze with west in it, and whilst some stretches of road were into headwinds, it was more a case of crosswinds. The air was warm but not overly so.

Above – ‘In the zone’ riders await their 5-4-3-2-1-GO ! from timekeeper Ken.

Fastest rider on the night with a time of 23:06 was Tristan Kelsall-Spurr, who was once an Exeter Wheeler but now rides for Magic Shine. His time is a fine time for a road bike. Tristan had a nasty crash back at Eastertime, and was out of action for a bit, but is now back riding and is coming into some serious fitness. He is looking forward to the Autumn hill climb season, and no doubt will post a good time in the National Hill Climb at on the Porlock Toll Road at the end of October.

Last week’s winner Rob Chuffy Simmonds said at the time he was pleased with his performance and that he felt he could go faster, addinf that a 23 minute ten was a possibility for him, and hurrah he got round this evening on 23:59 ! A happy rider !

Third placed Stuart Pollard of EWCC, and the league leader, was 44 seconds slower on 25:43, but would like to point out that he rides a metal road bike and asks if there might be a special prize for best placed metal biker. On yer bike Stuart. Cheeky chap.

Fourth place with 25:07 was another Exeter Wheeler in 25:07. Tim Fowler. Asked how his ride went afterwards Tim said “Yeah well I sort of adopted a different strategy of pacing, not sure if it worked, but it was definitely more comfortable“. 

In fifth place was George Robb of CS Dynamo. Until three weeks ago George had not ridden an ‘Evening Ten’ or indeed any other ten, but he’s certainly enjoying the challenge that the discipline offers, and in fact got his third PB in three weeks, with 25:10. He’s gone from a winter bike with mudguards, to a proper road bike, to a road bike with tri-bars. That’ll help.

Above – youngster Robin Dafforn looking ahead to his final A-level tomorrow.

Sixth placed Robin Dafforn, riding his first evening ten for a while, has his final A-Level tomorrow. A very good idea to get out and get some fresh air after probably a day spent indoors at table revising. 25:43. Robin has the physique of a racing whippet and no doubt goes v. fast up hills.

In seventh place, and riding another strong v60 ride was Exeter Wheelers Andy Haydon, on 26:42, whilst eight place went to the tandem ridden by Sid Valley pair Dal Dawlemi (sp.?) and Simon Olive, who overcame a mechanical on the way to the start to record a race time of 28:02. Tenth placed rider Richard Crosby was but 5 seconds outside his course PB with 28:55, Axe Valley Pedaller David Gray (v. nice Lemmy T-shirt you had there post-event David) was 11th with 29:28.

Above – A tandem. A veritable blurr. Go Sid Valley CC’ers !!

Twelfth placed John Baker was asked on the start line what his hopes were for his time, sub-30 minutes perhaps ? “Nah, sub-40 . . . .” Well he go round faster than evens with 21 secnds to spare, 29:39.

The event’s only V70 rider, Exeter Wheeler Dave Fleming also got round in sub-evens, just – 29.54. David is still getting used to his new eyes. After he had had his recent grafts, the world turned upside down. His brain has now got the images adjusted and the right way up, otherwise it would’ve made for some very challenging cycling for him this evening..

Above – Riders post-race discussing heart rates, sprockets, and time trial courses. And which of Taylor Swift’s shoes they found most becoming on her last tour.

Here are the results – 

The next race in the series, next week 24th of June, is a Sid Valley CC event. It isn’t true that Sid Valley is Frankie’s brother, tho’ it would be an idea to form a dance band called Sid Valley and The Evening Ten.
Foxtrots and Waltzes and Bongo Drums a speciality.

STOP PRESS – THE NEXT TEN IS A CS DYNAMO EVENT and not SVCC. ooops. sorry.

Here is the latest league table – the column in bold, after the bike type, is the total points column