Steve Dennis writes…
I don’t often ride Saturday 10’s but I saw my chance to ride the Bec CC’s promotion on the undulating G10/42 Holmwood course, an event (and course) that I haven’t ridden since 2006 when Hutch won in 20 minutes and 12 seconds.
Event organizer Keith Coffey was disappointed to have only received 43 entries seeing as afternoon 10’s used to get a 100 or so, but nevertheless the Bec put on a first class promotion.
The weather was fine if a little breezy, and the wind seemed to swirl around, hitting you in the face when weren’t expecting it. But it also gave you the opportunity to really get the big gears rolling on the wide open stretches of A24 that this course uses.
We had two riders in this event and for the first time this season I was joined by Chris Yates. It was good to catch up on a few things but that would have to wait until after the race because as usual I’d left it a bit late on arriving.
I was seeded last man off due to my recent “19” and I think people were expecting “a ride”. Everything was going to plan until I hit the long drags with 2 miles to go. I did my best to recover the deficit on the run-in to the finish, but there just wasn’t enough road to hit that magic 30 mph average needed for a sub-20 minute ride.
I recorded 20 mins and 8 seconds, which was the winning ride and a 1 minute and three second improvement on my 2006 efforts.
Results Steve Dennis East Grinstead 0:20:08 Don Milliken London Dynamo 0:21:01 Rob Pelham Lewes Wanderers 0:21:01 also Christian Yates East Grinstead 0:23:10
