Steve Dennis writes…
With the rain of the previous day a distant memory, Two EGCC teams
headed south to Laughton near Ringmer for the now legendary East Sussex
Cycling Association 2up team time trial.
A bright cold morning ensued (for the earlier starters anyway) as I
arrived at the event HQ where my partner/victim?* was ready and waiting
for the off. This year new member Alan Macinnes, who has been very
active on the winter club-runs, was keen to have a go at a 2up so after
a bit of frantic entry-form filling and emailing the orgaiser two days
after the entries closed, we were on the start sheet.
While getting changed in the hall, in strolled the other EG pairing of
Paul Winkley and drinking partner Richard Woodward. They were old-hands
at this game so there was going to be no problem there. Only “who’s
going to crack first”. My concern was what was Alan going to be like in
a “proper” race situation. With only a short trial session on the
Friday evening before to tell him the basic etiquette of 2up riding, I
had a few little concerns as to how well he would go. However my fears
were quashed when soon after we started it became clear that he could
stick to a wheel like a veteran. He came through strong on several
occasions and assisted in catching three teams along the way.
In the end we recorded 57mins 44secs, which was far better than Alan
had reckond on (he thought about one hour for the 24 miles would be
about right), and landed us in 8th place. Richard proved to be the
stronger of the two in the Winkley/Woodward pairing and an event free
ride saw them geat the hour too in 59:40 to take 2nd place in the vets
prizes. The fastest on the day was Hampshire based team A3crg Seb Ader
& Pat Brennan in 53:32.
*Not my word but a comment during the week by Mark Winton on an e-mail
thread.
Pictures of the event can be
seen at Mike Anton Photography.
