The good folk of Exeter Wheelers ran their annual Margaret Baker Memorial Trophy time trial on Sunday 12th April, on the Four Firs course. A strong field of south-west riders made up the entry of 33, over a third of which were EWCC members.
Over the years the Four Firs route has had to be changed a number of times, due to ‘highway architecture’ considerations – the introduction of traffic lights on any stretch of road on a time trial course immediately renders it unusable, for instance.
The current Four Firs course begins at Clyst St George, travels up-down-up through the village of Woodbury, down the dip after the village, to turn right towards the B3189 Budleigh road, then at the T-Junction at the top of this (uphill) stretch a left turn to the Four Firs crossroads, whenupon riders return downhill via Woodbury to Clyst St George, circle the roundabout and then repeat the route, to make a total of 17 miles.
In previous years road bikes have won out against time trial machines. However, this year the conditions favoured TT bikes – a tailwind for the mainly uphill ‘outward’ legs, and thus predominantly a headwind on the downhill stretches.
EWCC rider Andrew Whittemore won the event last year, on a road bike, and whilst he was unable to repeat his overall success this year, beaten by three TT machines, he nevertheless did prove to be the fastest road bike entry, on 37:55 and only one second off third place overall.
Top female rider of the day, Exeter Wheeler Ayse, pulling away from the start line.
Ayse Vahiboglu, making a welcome return to racing after a considerable time away, proved to be the fastest woman of the event. Ayse next day said “It was an unexpected win, which was particularly sweet with it being Four Firs in memory of Margaret Baker of course. It is a special event for me which back in 2013 and 2014 kick-started two consecutive years of committed racing. Yesterday, I felt a little out of practice, and not quite as confident as on the descents and technical sections of the course, of which there are plenty. Having had a long break after my son was born and following shoulder surgery a few years ago afters to a pretty nasty crash coming down a mountain in Cyprus, I needed to just start riding again and building back up my confidence and yesterday’s Four Firs certainly provided me with that opportunity. I pushed myself up the hills and then spent rather a lot of my energy on the breaks coming down the hills but there were a couple of flat sections when I was brave enough to go on the bars so that was good practice”
EWCC’s Gideon Aroussi easily won the vet 50+ prize with a time of 40.07 on his road bike. This also earnt him 5th place overall.
Gideon moving speedily towards the vet 50+ first prize.
Other strong rides from EWCC riders included the 41:41 from James Greenaway, a 42:13 (on the event’s only metal bike !) from Stuart Pollard, whilst Jon Hare did a PB for himself on the course, a minute faster than 2022, with 42:36. For Diogo Pacheco it was his first time trial, as it was for Michael Martinez, both of whom gave it their all, which is what you do isn’t it?
Overall winner on the day was Lloyd Copp, with 35:47. Lloyd, who was of Okehampton CC but is now of ‘Magicshine’. Lloyd, is going very well this year – he also won the SW round of the National RTTC ‘Classic’ series last month, a Hilly TT promoted by Tavistock Wheelers.
Sunday’s runner-up with a time of 36:22 was Blake Pond of Team Botrill, whilst another Magicshine rider was third, Jon Tune, on 37:54.
The full results can be found here, on the CTT website.
We thank all club members for their help on the day, and hope that organiser Greg Rorke and family are enjoying a nice time away.
Some further words from female winner Ayse, which serve to echo the thanks due from riders to all the people who made the event happen, and which also capture the camaraderie of bike racing itself:
“ It was lovely to see so many riders out enjoying time trialling in the April sun particularly all the (Exeter) Wheelers colours. I am grateful to Nik and Greg for taking on the organising of the event (I know how much time and effort needs to be put into making time trials happen and they did an amazing job). Didier and Mike were brilliant at the start – the friendly banter was just what I needed to settle the nerves. All the marshalls were fantastic in helping us stay safe and an event like this needs a lot of them so a massive thanks to them all for their time – the events would not happen without them. Last but not least, a mention for Ann Owens – I was so pleased to see her with her camera. Mr and Mrs Owens’ presence was always calming, reassuring and positive back when I used to race seriously – the amazing photos were always a bonus. Thanks to Ann for photographing the event yesterday, making teas and coffees but above all still bringing the positivity”.
We wish DNF rider Jimmy Richards all the best in recovering from the car-at-bike incident, and hope that he can be back ‘out there’ again soon, albeit not on the bike that was badly damaged on Sunday.
Finally, we thank Exeter Brewery for kindly providing us with some of their excellent ales, which served as additional prizes.