As the winter season approaches and we look back on the summer of cycling we have had as a club there is one thing to note, a rather exciting and interesting Time Trial Championship! If you didn’t know, RLSCC run a yearly TT championship alongside nearby cycling club Rugby Velo. TTs take place on a Tuesday evening and we typically have three official categories; Men's Championship, Women's Championship & a Veterans League. The courses include distances of 10 miles, 13 miles and 25 miles throughout the season. This year the championship ran from April to August but thanks to a not so sunny British summer we didn’t have as many entrants as we usually do but still managed to hold a total of 20 events. However, having said this, it doesn’t mean the fight to the finish was easy…
Men's Championship
Over the course of the season, we had a total of 20 riders turn up periodically for TTs. Some were definitely season regulars whilst some were new to the discipline. At the start of the season it wasn’t clear who would be the frontrunner but Kevin Walpole, Andrew Clucas and Ben Dodd were putting in some fantastic efforts earning them the higher end of the points available. As the season ramped up we saw some great finishes from Chris McAteer, Lloyd Maggs and Michael Pugh to name a few. Most riders race on a TT bike or a modified road bike using TT bars, disc wheels and aero helmets. However, some riders like to make it a lot harder for themselves and enter on a full road bike with no modifications because a 25 mile TT isn’t hard enough! By August, there were two clear leaders with Andrew and Ben fighting for first place each week trying to pip the other for the top spot. However, Ben completely blew the competition out of the water and our event on 8th August saw him take first place on the podium with the maximum possible score with 5 weeks still to go! Not an easy effort and remember those crazy cyclists that race on a road bike? Yep, Ben is one of those so well done to you Ben - looking forward to seeing what you can pull out the bag next year! Not to mention Andrew and his insane effort throughout the year giving Ben a run for his money at times. Hoping to see you come back even stronger next year!
Please see the Men’s Championship results below:
Women’s Championships
In our women’s championship this year we saw a total of 6 riders enter over the summer and as with the mens some were complete newbies so hats off to you ladies for giving it a go! Our two most regular riders were Jade Anstis and Miriam Apsley who were both racing each other week on week for the top spot and maximum points. Both riders raced pretty much the same number of events meaning it wasn’t easy for the frontrunner as they most definitely were not tuning up and winning by default - something we love to see here at the club. However, once July arrived it was evident that Jade was going to take the lead with her superb performances! Jade managed to obtain 180 points thanks to her efforts this season earning her the first place crown. Huge congratulations to Jade and a big well done to Miriam as well as all the other women who turned up this year to give TT-ing a go. We would absolutely love to see more women in our TT championship next year so be sure to reach out if you fancy taking on a new cycling discipline!
Veteran’s League
Like most other cycling clubs, we also run a Veterans league. Entrants over 40 are eligible to participate and we run the events and scoring in line with CTT rulings. If you want to find out more about how this is scored then see the details on the CTT website here. Overall we 9 riders eligible for our Vets league this year including one female. The vets scoring is very different to the standard championship so at the start of the season it is really hard to see if there is one particular rider who is stronger than the rest or not. This was definitely the case for RLSCC this year. By the middle of the season, Lloyd Maggs and Chris McAteer were looking like they will be our top two men with Kevin Walpole and Alexander Craig coming up behind them. Chris and Lloyd were participating in a similar number of events each by the end of the season meaning it wasn’t an easy fight for first place! However as our league was drawing to a close, Chris put in some incredible performances to ultimately take the top spot on the board - a big congratulations to you Chris!
Please see the Veteran’s League results below:
With that, our 2023 TT season is sadly over! We’ve had a good year and seen some rather impressive performances from our club riders. We would absolutely love to see you all back next year and hopefully some new faces as well. If the above hasn’t convinced you to give it a try then you might be keen to know that next year we are considering a full Road Bike league as well so do watch this space…
Well done to all of our riders and we look forward to seeing you in 2024!
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