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News, Results

East Devon Evening Ten Series event 3 results and report

Last week’s Open Ten Mile Time Trial saw many course-bests from riders thanks to the favourable wind direction. This week, however, it was back to contending with the usual westcountry westerlies.

Amusingly, of the ten competing riders no-one wanted to go off first, so there was no number 1 – first rider off was thus no. 2, Clare Pentecost of the host club CS Dynamo of Exmouth.

Last away was the youngest rider, Lennox Turner, at aged 18, on number 11.

Sadly, it is the case that entries for bike races across the land are somewhat in decline, but we remain hopeful that come better weather and faster conditions will come higher attendances for the ‘ten’ series. On the plus side, we are seeing a some younger riders coming along.

The contestants found their speed much hindered on Wednesday as they battled the strong headwind on the way out to the first turn. Once ‘turned’ then all had a welcome helping hand from the wind, but alas however much all went in search of ‘temps perdu’, lost time can’t ever be regained, no matter how many pre-race madeleine cakes you eat.  And yet more time was lost on the final leg as riders stamped hard on pedals to reach the finish line whilst the roadside trees and bushes waved to and fro in the brisk breeze.

Going fastest and winning again was Exeter Wheeler ‘J.G.’ – last week he did so on his TT machine in the Open Ten, this week he rode a road bike and still won. His time was 24:37 so top marks JG. James Salter of the organising club took second spot with 25:03. Completing the lofty podium places was Stuart Pollard, another Exeter Wheeler with 25:30. EWCC’s Escot CX race organiser Jon Hare made one of his occasional outings to the series, and was only a few seconds slower than Stuart on 25:39.

Later, over a pint at the New Fountain Inn in Whimple, Jon said of the event “Bl**dy blowy! Didn’t make for fast times but made it testing! Felt great for the short tailwind leg – getting some PBs along there. It’s a nice little course and the organisers were welcoming”. Jon did complain, however, that organiser David eschewed his offer of £4.85 of loose change as entry, asking instead for the full £Fiver, in note form. Quite right too.

It was, though, a tough night for a TT, all riders having to suffer the indignity of slower times than they would like. However, younger rider Lennox Turner bucked the trend and recorded his best-yet time for the course with 27:13, so he must be doing something right.

Here are the results:

1 James Greenaway Exeter Whs. CC M snr road 24:37
2 James Salter Sid Valley CC M senior tt 25:03
3 Stuart Pollard Exeter Whs. CC M v40 road 25:30
4 Jon Hare Exeter Whs. CC M v40 road 25:39
5 Harry McMahon guest M senior road 26:28
6 Lennox Turner guest M senior road 27:13
7 George Robb CS Dynamo M v50 road  27:25
8 Simon Brown CS Dynamo M v60 tt 27:47
9 Pete Bishop Exeter Whs. CC M v60 road 28:40
10 Clare Pentecost CS Dynamo F v50 tt 29:32

CS Dynamo Evening Ten Supremo David Hall would like to thank his team of helpers – Paul Martin, Juan Alvarez, Tony Heggadon, Patrick Neal and Ted Low. 

Here is a nice picture of CS Dynamo folk out enjoying the sprint sunshine recently one one of their weekly ‘clubs runs’, details of which can be found on their Facebook page.

The writer of this report would like to correct any of those who are thinking, like he once did, that CS Dynamo might share some commonality with similar-sounding entities such as Red Star Belgrade, Dynamo Zagreb, Sparta Prague, and the like. These latter were in fact all eastern European football clubs of the Soviet era, and not cycling clubs, although it is possible that when their Trabants broke down the players of these clubs did ride their bicycles to work. CS Dynamo, on the other hand, hail not from east Europe but from east Devon (Exmouth), and have never been much bothered about footy. They have never won the UEFA cup.

Finally, the ‘Evening Ten League Table’ will be updated on the EWCC website over the next few days – a reminder that prizes will be given for league winners both overall and in the various categories (Road Bike, TT Bike, Youth, Senior, V40, V50, V60, Male, Female etc) at the end of the series.

The next evening ten will be on the 10th of June and will be run by Sid Valley CC.

Full details of the East Devon Evening Tens series can be found here.

 

 

 

 

 

News, Results

Open Ten Mile Time Trial and other racing . . .

Wednesday evening’s Exeter Wheelers CC  Open Ten Mile Time Trial took place earlier this week on a very warm evening with a good south-easterly breeze.

This event was previously run on the Honiton (mainly) A30 dual-carriageway course, but last year the decision was made to move it as the main A30 has become very busy, and the course featured a somewhat alarming ‘turn’ where riders had to take two right turns across traffic – not ideal in terms of safety. The new course was to have been on the Smeatharpe ‘ridge’ road up on the Blackdown Hills. However, potholes put paid to that plan – EWCC committee members visited the roads back in early April, reported the copious potholes but to no avail – local authorities are starved of funds nowadays and the potholes could not be repaired in time . . . so Plan C was arrived at.

Plan C – run the event on the Honiton ‘club course’, which uses the old A30 from near Honiton down to Patteson’s Cross and back, then out again to just past the cross. Not the fastest of courses due to its lack of flatness and its two ‘turns’. These factors were perhaps off-putting factor for some ‘testers’, leading to a slightly lower entry that might be expected for our Open 10, but it was the right thing to do to proceed with the event despite all.

Seventeen riders signed up for the race, and the wind which was not ill blew lots of good ! Most riders recorded ‘Course PBs’ on the night, helped by the warm conditions and the fact that the two eastward legs provided a helping tailwind and there was only the one (westward) leg into the wind. The event also saw Exeter Wheelers taking the top four places  – full results can be found here on the CTT website.

Winner of the Women’s category, Gemma Waterjohns, heading westwards.

It was definitely a course PB for youngster Michael Mason-Sanders of EWCC, as he improved his time by nearly two minutes on his previous only ride on this course (and indeed his first ever Ten Mile Time Trial)  two weeks ago, 24:51 v 26:50. Michael said afterwards “Yeah, the conditions certainly helped, but it was also that this time I went better because I knew what to expect and how to gauge my effort – I am enjoying doing these races, they seem to be a great way to get serious training in and also to gauge fitness”.

Thanks go to organiser Ian Hennessey, timekeepers Rob Barrow, Ken Evans and Pete Bishop, and to Dave Sheehan, Catherine Finlayson, Andy and Fin Webb, Nik and Greg Rorke, Jane Mason and Phil Harris for all turning out to marshall the event. And to Elly for managing the sign-on desk and being on tea and cake duty. Phil also put out the signage and collected it afterwards.

Michael Mason-Sanders went well over the May bank holiday weekend as well, venturing down to Cornwall to compete in the Wheal Jane Classic, promoted by the thriving Wheal Velocity club, where he rode in the ‘Youth’ category. The two-day event featured four separate races, being a 1 mile time trial, ‘short format’ and a ‘long format’ criterium races on a challenging undulating circuit, and a hill climb.

Michael leading the way in one of the two crits

Michael triumphed in three out of four of them, and only narrowly missed out on first place in the hill climb. He had comfortable winning margins in both of the crits, in each finishing a good few bike lengths ahead of second place, after he had earlier won the time trial first stage. It wasn’t all plain sailing for him, being as he was the only Exeter Wheeler riding – in the crits he would’ve benefitted from a team mate to work with, but he still won them both so hey ho chapeau ! Next year he’ll stepping up to the ‘Junior’ ranks, when he’ll be able to race against riders in the 16 – 18 age category, where there will be both bigger fields and stronger competition – “Yes I am really looking forward to that !” says Michael. We wish him every success !

Amongst our senior riders, there were 4th places for EWCC’s Ben Zissimos and Andrew Whittemore down at the Torbay Velopark in Round 4 of the ‘Cream First’ circuit race series – Ben’s placing was in the 4th cat race whilst Andrew’s was in the cat. 2/3 race.

The next evening ten will take place this coming Wednesday the 3rd of June, and will be organised by CS Dynamo, meaning the EWCC ‘Triple Lock’ team of ‘Wheelers Mike, Phil and Pete can take a back seat for the night.

Finally, we are looking for a third ‘Wheeler to join the two already entered in the National 24 Hour Time Trial Championship in late July. If you like riding a bike, and the more riding the better, then riding a bike for 24 hours will be just your cup of tea ! We need three riders to make up a team, you see . . . .

News, Results

EWCC women-only evening ten 20/5/26

This evening saw the third annual ‘Women Only’ evening ten put on by Exeter Wheelers, on the Honiton ‘Club Course’.

Our first event of this type, back in 2024 saw 10 or so riders compete but not so many in subsequent events, including this evening. We will however persevere and perhaps next season run the women only event later in the season when evening ten attendances have gained some momentum. 

Above – Clare Pentecost of CS Dynamo

Clare Pentecost of CS Dynamo said of this evening’s event ‘It’s good to have women only events, it’s not that it is intimidating riding in the same time trial as the men, but it is nice if it’s an all-female time trial, there’s less of a difference in abilities, and a feeling camaraderie amongst we female riders that comes from such events is also to be valued’

 

Prize-winning Clare being presented with two bottles of fine ale by evening ten helper and EWCC committee member Pete B, beer courtesy of Exeter Brewery, to whom our thanks go.

Next week’s evening ten is our ‘Open event’, which was to have been held on the Smeatharpe course, but the dangerous state of the road surface in that area has necessitated a move to the ‘Club (Fenny Bridges) course’. First rider off next Wednesday evening will be Stuart Pollard of EWCC, at 19.01. Stuart was kind enough to come out to Honiton this evening to help with the marshalling – thanks go to him plus Mike Rose, Phil Harris, Mike Rose, Ann Owen and Pete Bishop for ensuring that the event took place. We seriously need more members to consider helping at club events.