Conditions prove testing for riders in CC Breckland’s early season 10-mile time trial

Cycling Club Breckland held their early season 10-mile time trial, Nick Parravani in action. Picture: Fergus Muir (Image: Fergus Muir)

On a cold, wet and breezy Saturday afternoon only 49 out of the 72 riders made it to the start line with the low temperature and wet conditions putting many off racing.

Winning the event for the second year in a row was Cambridge CC racer David McGaw who’s time of 21.19mins was 49 seconds slower than his course record of last year, giving indication that the conditions were not ideal for super-fast times.

In second spot was Team Velo Velocity rider Daniel Bloy in 21.35 ahead of team-mates Paul Jay (22.28) and Andrew Leggett (22.53). These strong performances from Velo Velocity gave them a comfortable team win.

Despite an early season crash at the Ely and District Harder riders event in February, Chris Nudds rode well to finish 20th in a time of 24.36 to win the Veterans on standard category with a plus time of 3.56 just ahead of Plomesgate’s Jim Hardwicke plus 3.52 and Chris Tye plus 3.24.

CC Breckland rider Alex Bailey rode well to a time of 23.44 to finish just outside the top 10. Event secretary Mark Fairhead setting himself off last in a ‘sweeper up role’ posted a time of 26.55 to win fastest on fixed-wheel and Breckland veteran Nick Parravani finished in 28.52 to match his veteran standard time. Jack Bracey, 17, riding for Tri Harder, was the Junior winner in 25.26.

VC Norwich’s Jennifer Smart won the women’s event in a time of 27.03 just ahead of West Suffolk Wheelers Tricia Goulden (27.12) and Ely & District rider Francesca Rust (27.23).

The best performances of the day has to be given to the time keepers and marshals who bravely stood out in the cold and wet conditions for the best part of two hours.