Kingston Interclub 25

Twickenham/ Hounslow/ Kingston Interclub 25 – Report by Chris Lovibond — The Kingston Wheelers, newcomers to this old event, won the handicap team award and provided the fastest rider on actual time.

TT RESULT: Twickenham/ Hounslow/ Kingston Interclub 25 – Report by Chris Lovibond

Twickenham handicap team – Zoe Calder, Denise Quinlan and Margaret Murphy

Henrik Perrson, fastest on scratch

The Kingston Wheelers, newcomers to this old event, won the handicap team award and provided the fastest rider on actual time. The handicap team was close run with the Twickenham CC losing out by a mere 22 seconds be-tween the three counting riders.

Kingston Wheelers:
Ben Bodley (22 minutes allowance)…………..42minutes 13 seconds
Neil Grunshaw (12 min.)……………………..46. 43
James Lawn (13 min.)…………………………49. 13 Aggregate 2.18.11

Twickenham CC:
Denise Quinlan (38 min.)……………………..44.42
Zoe Calder (32 min.)………………………….46.43
Margaret Murphy (39 min.) ………………….47.08. Aggregate 2.18.33.

The Hounslow were a distant third with an aggregate of 2.40.50.

Handicapping, as we know, is not an exact science, but the closeness of the first two teams does suggest that it was done well. Let’s hope that this result will help to encourage the idea that entering a time trial in the hope of achieving something in the handicap section is worthwhile. We look for-ward to a good crop of inexperienced time trialists for next year’s event!

Actual Times
In the scratch race Henrik Persson (KW) was fastest with an impressive 55.19 on this undulating back road course. Gareth Williams (TCC), the fastest man on paper, ran him close with a creditable 56.32, while Neal Beauchamp (KW) recorded 56.49 for third place.

Sam Williams (TCC), in fourth place justified the brave decision to ride fixed with 58.02, a time which must be close to the course record for a single gear. There was one other rider on fixed, Daren Austin (TCC), who recorded a respectable 1.01.11.

Watching from the roadside, it was striking that many competitors were riding what could be de-scribed as standard road bikes. Most of these looked new and expensive with carbon frames and disc brakes, but made no concessions to aerodynamics, so there must be plenty of room for these riders to improve just with a few alterations to their position on the bike. As mentioned, this event is pri-marily aimed at the inexperienced, so here we can see how useful experience can be gained.

This was a successful day for the organisers who seem to have secured the future of this event which, until quite recently looked as though it might fade away to join the long list of defunct time trials; now there can be hope that it will reach its centenary in 2035.