New Forest Cycling Club have a long standing tradition of hosting an end of season Autumn time trial and this year was no different… other than the course and the event HQ.

Welcoming riders onto the P128/10 course for the first time for an open test, the team were pleased with the arrival of sunshine and relatively still weather conditions… There might have been a little more traffic on the roads than expected, hampering the times of a few riders, but that’s the risk we all take with racing on open roads.

Three separate categories were organised for the mornings racing with tandems setting off first, road bikes following them and TT bikes at the end of the list. The field of 44 riders comprised of 1 tandem, 8 road bikes and 34 solos ranging from 13 to 84 and three quarters in age…

The only tandem of the day belonged to local duo Stuart & Skye Martingale from Sotonia who completed the course in 26m47s.

Road bikes were the second bunch to leave the start and NFCC’s Sein Van der Plank crossed the line in the shortest time from the women’s field with a 25m55s, and Dave Dent of GS Stella took the men’s line honours with a 23m24s.

With TT bikes released on to the course, there was a dominant display from the final few riders in the men’s field. Local riders Jordan Giles and Sam Wadsley of Primera-TeamJobs took the top two spots of the timing sheet with Giles slipping just under the 20min barrier at 19m59s, and Wadsley following him home in 20m32s. Tom Clements of Wessex RC clocked the third fastest time of the day at 20m51s. Despite having to wait behind a horse box at a roundabout for what must have felt like an eternity, Lucy Gadd (Storey Racing) kept her cool and crossed the line in 22m33s to take the win in the women’s TT bike field. Second place went to Kirsty McSeveney (…a3crg) at 25m07s and third to Rosie Simmons (SURC) at 25m25s.

Special mention must also go to the charming Brian “Supergramp” Lewis who despite being 85 in January, didn’t let his years hold him back, crossing the line in only 29m50s – chapeau sir!

On behalf of the organisers and the riders, we’d like to share a big thank you to everyone for making the event run so smoothly… the riders couldn’t do it without the people who give up their time to make the events happen and there would be no point in the volunteers being there without such a well behaved bunch of riders… thank you, to you all.

Images from the event can be found in a gallery by CLICKING HERE  (email press@newforestcc.co.uk for hi-res copies) and a full list of results can be seen in the table below.