National 25 Mile Championship Headline Results

Our 2023 championships kicked off very successfully on Sunday 16th April with Yorkshire Group promoting on the 2-lap Thirsk By-pass course, V236/1. There was a full field of 120 solo riders plus reserves and 2 tandems on the start list, so everyone who was able to got a ride.

After several years of the same names winning it was pleasing to see some new characters challenging, and both the men and women provided first timer VTTA champions and some other newbies bidding for the top honours. National awards, all calculated on age adjusted time, were distributed as follows:

Men's National Champion : Russ Richardson (Zurbaran Racing and North Group), age 65 - 54:24 act, 48:09 AAT
Second man : Richard Bideau (Pendle Forest CC and NL&L Group), age 52 - 50:42 act, 48:19 AAT
Third man : Joe Costello (Legato RT and Midlands Group), age 64 - 54:14 act, 48:21 AAT

Women's National Champion : Linda Dewhurst (Team Milton Keynes and L&HC Group), age 64 - 1:01:05 act, 48:17 AAT
Second woman : Deborah Moss (Springfield Financial RT and NL&L Group), age 52 - 58:03 act, 49:10 AAT
Third woman : Angela Hannon-Flaherty (Seacroft Whs and Yorkshire Group), age 54 - 1:00:04 act, 50:39 AAT

Club Team Champions : Springfield Financial RT (Deborah Moss, Derek Parkinson, Theresa Taylor) - 2:31:56 AAT

Group Team Champions : North Lancs & Lakes (Richard Bideau, Peter Greenwood, Deborah Moss) 2:26:33 AAT

Tandem Champions : Andrew and Catherine Hutchison (Ride Harder and East Anglian Group) - 59:53 act, 52:36 AAT

Other non-championship awards of engraved glass paperweights were on offer and were distributed as follows:

Fastest VTTA man on actual : Richard Sharp (Addform Vive le Velo) - 49:19
Fastest VTTA woman on actual : Deborah Moss (Springfield Financial RT - 58:03

Fastest Yorkshire Group man on actual : Aidan Adams (Harrogate Nova CC) - 54:20 (1 rider, 1 prize)
Fastest Yorkshire Group woman on actual : Angela Hannon-Flaherty (Seacroft Whs) - 1:00:04

Fastest Yorkshire Group man on AAT : Tim Garwell (Otley CC) - 58:30 act, 50:07 AAT
Fastest Yorkshire Group woman on AAT : Sue McFarlane (Army Cycling) - 1:03:53 act, 57:04 AAT

Fastest Yorkshire Group club team on AAT : Addform Vive le Velo (Richard Sharp, Neil Cleminshaw, Andrew Coulbeck) 2:36:15 AAT

After the recent cold and wet conditions,  riders (and marshals etc) were please with the improvement in the weather. Although cool for the early starters it remained dry, almost windless and warmed up nicely later on - this did however mean that traffic was quite heavy later on. Even within the after event banter there was not  much grumbling with the conditions which are now picking up this season for our sport.

Thanks to Blair Buss and his large team of helpers for a very well organised championship.

Photos will be available to freely download at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143946289@N04/albums/72177720306858691