Result: Hounslow & District Wheelers 100m TT

Mark Smith fastest in Hounslow & District Wheelers 100 mile time trial on August 1st; Marianne Holt fastest woman

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Result: Hounslow & District Wheelers 100m TT

Hounslow 100 Report by Chris Lovibond.

The 2021 Ron Brown 100 was run off successfully last Sunday – no small achievement in these difficult times.

The winner was Mark Smith (Crawley Wheelers) who recorded the fast time of 3.37.12 which gave him a clear margin of five and a half minutes over runner up Eddie Allen (Redmon) whose 3.42.52 was just eleven seconds too good for third placed Alex Donger (Oxonian) who finished in 3.42.53. Mark also won the previous Hounslow 100 when it was last promoted in 2019.

In the women’s event Marianne Holt (Fareham Wheelers) took the honours with a creditable 4.11.05. Second place went to Louisa Cooper (Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers) with 4.40.00.

In conversation with Mark Smith after the finish, his enthusiasm for this event and time trialling in general shone brightly; like many other good time triallists he has come to the discipline as a vet after many seasons of road racing and cyclo cross. After a good start to this year’s season he said he had suffered a minor illness a few weeks ago which had interrupted his progress and he had even considered not starting in this event because he was unsure of his fitness. As we can all now see, his form has returned.

One concern Mark did mention was that although his own club is very active, many members saw riding open time trials as an elite activity – I’m afraid this may be a common belief and I hope that anyone reading this will note that with most open time trials currently under subscribed these events are literally ‘open’ to all.

Marianne Holt is in her fourth season of time trialling but this is her first year of attempting the longer distances, for which she is pleased and a bit surprised to find that she has a talent. After gaining eighth place in the women’s National Championship with 4.17.6. this ride has given her a six minute improvement of her personal best. Her own description of her style is ‘diesel’, and she is looking forward to the 4th September when she will ride the BDCA 100. I think we can expect further improvement!

Although the numbers do not show it, perhaps the most outstanding ride of the day came from the lone tandem entry. This was crewed by Ian Greenstreet and Rachael Elliott (Newbury Road Club) and their time of 3.46.51. was good enough to take the second place on vets’ plus (+1.04.13.). This time looks good but not brilliant – it is only when you hear the details that it becomes impressive. They punctured, rode on the rim for at least three miles to where their car was parked near the start and then had to inflate the tyre on a spare back wheel, put the new wheel in the tandem and then adjust the brake; their guess is that they lost ten minutes, but this seems a conservative estimate. It should also be mentioned that the tandem was the first to start at 7.14 am when it was still fairly cold and there was almost no traffic on the road. It seems very likely that without these problems they would have been very near to the mixed tandem competition record.

Ian Greenstreet has already had long and creditable time trial career, while Rachael Elliot started in 2011 and rose steadily winning the Circuit TT Championship in 2017. Then in early 2018 she tragically suffered a stroke which damaged her eyesight and this meant that, apart from all the other difficulties, her only option in cycling was the back of a tandem.

Fortunately she had a ready made partner in her friend Ian and it seems they are an excellent match for each other on the tandem – they now hold comp. records at 15, 25, 30 and 50 miles. Rachael’s power output has not been diminished by her health problem, and she believes that her relatively slight build makes her an excellent fit behind Ian, giving a good aerodynamic shape. Whatever the explanation she is great example of some one who has shrugged off adversity.

Finally mention must be made of the organiser, Bruce McMichael who, like all race promoters this year, had a hard job made much harder by the problems arising from the pandemic. All the competitors I spoke to praised the organisation of the event and we can only hope that the same team will be back for 2022. Mark Smith certainly does – he is hoping to complete a hat trick of three consecutive victories.

1 Mark Smith Crawley Wheelers 03:37:12 Male Vet
2 Eddie Allen Redmon CC 03:42:42 Male Senior
3 Alexander Donger Oxonian CC 03:42:53 Male Senior
4 Liam Somerville Bike Jockey CC 03:45:06 Male Senior
5 Edward Hales London Dynamo 03:46:47 Male Vet
6 Kevin Baker Velo Club St Raphael 03:50:11 Male Vet
7 Daniel Ryan North Road CC 03:51:52 Male Senior
8 Edward Renwick Oxford City RC 03:54:06 Male Vet
9 Phil Wilks Sotonia CC 03:54:23 Male Senior
10 Jay Hookins BJ cycling 03:56:31 Male Senior
11 Mark Bradley Bristol South Cycling Club 03:57:51 Male Vet
12 Colin Parkinson South Western Road Club 03:59:23 Male Vet
13 Gary Lock New Forest CC 03:59:38 Male Vet
14 Duncan Emery Twickenham CC 04:01:01 Male Vet
15 Paul Winchcombe Chippenham & District Wheelers 04:06:34 Male Vet
16 Pete Christensen Alton CC/Owens Cycles 04:07:58 Male Vet
17 Benoit Bely Walden Tri 04:09:00 Male Vet
18 Julian Lockwood Primera-Teamjobs 04:10:27 Male Vet
19 Craig Nilsson Rye & District Wheelers CC 04:10:39 Male Senior
20 Gareth Wood Hart Veloce 04:10:48 Male Vet
21 Marianne Holt Fareham Wheelers CC 04:11:05 Female Vet
22 Billy Dyer BJ cycling 04:12:55 Male Vet
23 George Turner VTTA (London & Home Counties) 04:16:39 Male Vet
24 Ian Neville Hart Evolution Race Team 04:20:57 Male Vet
25 Richard Mellor Team Bottrill 04:27:12 Male Vet
26 Nick Burton Newark Castle C C 04:32:28 Male Vet
27 Neil Langley Hampshire Road Club 04:32:45 Male Vet
28 Gordon Hobbs Verulam CC 04:37:03 Male Vet
29 Luhan Bely Walden Tri 04:37:20 Male Espoir
30 Paul Couldridge Phoenix Triathlon 04:38:19 Male Vet
31 Louisa Cooper Bournemouth Jubilee Whs 04:40:00 Female Senior
32 Paul Walker Phoenix Triathlon 04:53:34 Male Vet
33 John Isard Hampshire Road Club 04:54:21 Male Vet
34 Gary Martin Westerley Cycling Club 05:04:08 Male Vet
35 Peter Horsfield Redmon CC 05:12:34 Male Vet

Tandem
1 Rachael Elliott Newbury Velo 3:46:51
1 Ian Greenstreet Newbury Velo 3:46:51

 



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