August 11, 2012 - ViCiOUS Velo - Staplefield - E/1/2/3/4 - I

[George]

A beautifully sunny warm day greeted us down at the Surrey leagues two up team time trial down in Handcross.  Carl had asked if I wanted a ride and I really fancied a ttt with Him. Was a big turnout with lots of teams and solos as well going off before us. 
Mo L had come down to cheer us on and we also had some great encouragement on our warm up with a chav who claimed out his mates passing car window and screamed at us like a big Gorrilla hehe, thought I was back in Croydon there. 
Well 17 teams and 25 solos for this had roadmans tt classic spectacular. 
3:2:1 go whoosh and down the hill towards staplefield, where I hit the front and got the speed up for the downhills, we were going so quick over 40mph I freewheeled for recovery. On the uphills Carl pulled us upwards and onwards. We had 2 laps of a mega hilly 13 mile sporting circuit which just seemed to roll all the time, very difficult to find a good rhythm to ride. 
Our pace was a bit quick on the first lap and Carl had o dig deep up the drag after Balcombe. 
We got ridiculously baulked riding through Handcross high street coming to a stop on several occassions and lost the best part of a minute I'd say. 

We both ride much smoother on the second lap and reeled in a lot of other teams and some solo riders too!
At the finish we clocked a 1.02.17 for 3rd place podium spot in the team race. 
Only beaten by two Elite teams

Pos Name Club/Team Cat Race # 1st Lap Time Finish Time
1 Chris McNamara Pedal Heaven E 55 0:28:35 0:58:46
Mark Fenner Team Torq E 56
2 Nicolas Hutchings C.S. Grupetto E 53 0:29:01 1:00:28
Matthew Theobalds C.S. Grupetto 2 54
3 Carl Ferri Addiscombe CC 3V 41 0:30:01 1:02:07
George Brent Addiscombe CC 3 42

[Andrew G]

Nice .

[carl f]

Good description George although you are being very kind. 1st lap i simply couldn't hold George's wheel on the downwards and flats he was way too strong for me doing huge turns on the front. At times in the first 10 miles or so i felt like pulling over constantly thinking of various ways to dnf including faking a puncture as i was so deep in the red
2nd lap i found my legs a bit and hopefully helped George get us round a bit more. Seriously if George was with a stronger rider on the day or on a solo TT he would have been way up there in the final results
Lack of any real speed work recently certainly showed as the legs were shot during and after the race
This year was way windier than last year when me and Sylv tackled the course, so baring in mind that and the traffic hold up in handcross it was a good time in the end
Thanks George your a complete nutter

[Roy Green]

Sounds to me like a brilliant effort by both of you. Hearty congrats!