Images courtesy Crawley Wheelers
Steve Dennis writes…
This Sunday we fielded 4 riders in the annual Crawley Wheelers ‘Shoreham & Back’ sporting TT. Although it doesn’t actually go to Shoreham these days due to course restrictions, it follows pretty much the old route and distance keeping the same classic climbs for good measure.
Stef, Ben Hardisty and Mike were all off within seven minutes of each other with me, last-man-off some 52 minutes later. I don’t think the time gap made much difference to the temperature or wind strength which were both exceptionally low and high (in that order) for the time of year, but this year’s been like that all the way so far.
Like I said, the strong northerly blew everybody swiftly South on the mostly downhill stretch to Bramber via Cowfold and Partridge Green, where we were met with the full force in our faces on the twisty return back up through Henfield and Shaves Wood lane, a little respite along the B2116 to Henfield North roundabout where we turned North again for the grind back to Handcross.
At the finish, Mike had made up the seven minutes that he was behind Stef and they crossed the line in a sprint finish. Ben on the other hand took things a little more gentle while nursing a broken (pinned and strapped) index finger, the result of a cricket misadventure the week before.
My ride was slightly marred by an increasingly problematic back-ache that set in at about 25 miles, just in time for the slog back north but I was quite satisfied with 2nd place behind an in-form Chris Macnamara of Pedal Heaven RT who won in a time of 1hr 35mins 32secs.
Top marks to Crawley Wheelers who never fail in putting on a well marshalled quality event that this year attracted 82 riders.
EG times:- Steve D 1:36:26
Mike A 1:51:01
Stef A 1:58:01
Ben H 2:03:35
