Mike Anton writes…
Another massive win for Mr Dennis.
Fresh off his 19:55 bimble around the Crawley Wheelers club 10 on Thursday, Steve demolished the field on their open SPOCO 41 on Sunday to win with 1:33:39.
Steve set the course record in 2007 with 1:38:17 so an almost 5 minute improvement is unheard of.
The riders started off in cool crisp but sunny conditions though soon warmed up as they headed out towards Steyning via Cowfold. From the bottom of the course at Upper Beeding, they returned via two legs in to Henfield before tackling the tortuous climb up Crabtree, finishing off with the deceptive drag back to Handcross.
Such was the quality of Steve’s ride that 2nd place man Rob Pelham was almost 4 minutes behind, and this from someone who’s recently clocked a 1:50 ’50’. 3rd place went to Steve’s long time friend and adversary, Mike Coyle and 4th went to Iain Brogden of Eastbourne Rovers.
Simon Smythe of PCA Ciclos Uno must get a mention for riding a 90′ fixed. The rolling hilly nature of this course would be a real test so props to him for finishing 14th with 1:45:27.
(I pushed off, so bombed off down the course afterwards and sort of managed to get a shot of Steve from the car heading towards Cowfold). – A common view of him for just about everyone in a race!
