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.

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 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 4^th 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 4^th cat race whilst Andrew’s was in the cat. 2/3 race.

The next evening ten will take place this coming Wednesday the 3^rd 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 . . . .

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.

15 year old Michael Mason-Sanders, who has been impressing in his first year as an Exeter Wheeler in early season  races rode his first ten mile time trial in the EWCC Evening Ten this evening 13^th of May, and recorded a highly promising 26 minutes 50 seconds on a road bike, on what was a very cold and very slow night. If he sticks at it, he is going to be going a whole lot faster as his body adjusts to the discipline of time trialling and as he grows stronger with age.

Michael Mason-Sanders heading for the finish line.

The evening gave all riders and officials something to look forward to – warmer evenings as the weeks go by, and fuller fields. It was very very cold and the wind was 70% strong headwind. The only plus was that the rain held off. Predictably, attendance was low, with only six riders braving the chilly weather and slow conditions, all of whom knew that they would not be getting within a country mile of a PB ….

Michael Mason-Sanders wasn’t the only teenager rider competing, there were also Lennox Turner and Harry McMahon, 18 and 19 years old and back again after their TT debuts last week in the evening ten, whilst the other three riders competing tonight were of the veteran variety, all in their 50’s or 60’s.

Fastest on the night was Lubos Obornik with a very impressive-on-the-night 23:14.

Thank you Mike Rose, Phil Harris, Ann Owen and Pete Bishop for turning out to make the event happen, and also to Jane Mason and Marc Sanders who donned high-vis at very short notice as we didn’t have enough marshalls for one of the turns. If you are reading this as an Exeter Wheelers PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE come and help at events as we are DESPERATE for people to serve as marshalls at our evening tens. We really don’t want to have to cancel events at short notice, which is likely to happen if we don’t get volunteers stepping forward to help.

Full results are:

							points
1	Lubos Obornik	Cranbrook CC	M	D	tt	23:14	15
2	Tim Fowler	Exeter Whs. CC	M	C	tt	25:09	14
3	Harry McMahon	guest	M	senior	road	26:42	13
4	Michael Mason-Sanders-	Exeter Whs. CC	M	youth	road	26:50	12
5	Andrew Haydon	Exeter Whs. CC	M	E	road	27:22	11
6	Lennox Turner	guest	M	senior	road	29:35	10

Next Wednesday’s East Devon Evening Ten is our annual WOMENS’ ONLY EVENT.