National 50 Mile Championship

The National 50 mile championship on Saturday 10^th June turned out to be one of the toughest events that riders can remember due to the temperature that reached 30⁰C coupled with a very stiff headwind on the two northbound laps of the course. The late installation of temporary traffic lights on a very short section of the course, which was notified to riders on the Friday, proved to be a rather minor issue on the day with the heat and the wind being by far the real problem. Of the 91 solos there were 31 DNS and a further 18 riders were DNF on the day. That left 40 finishers of which 30 were VTTA members. Many riders were 10 minutes or more off their 50 mile LTS time.

Nevertheless, we had very worthy winners. Deborah Moss took the women’s title with an AAT of 1:47:07 (actual 2:06:01) and Claire Emons took the silver with an AAT of 1:51:41 (actual 2:11:10) despite a mechanical giving her only one gear to ride on! Kath Smith produced a battling 2:00:58 on AAT (actual 2:32:37) to take the bronze.

In the men’s event Andrew Gallacher from Scotland produce a really exceptional ride of 1:45:10 on AAT (actual 1:51:48) beating Joe Costello (AAT of 1:48:03 and actual 2:00:35) and Neil Cleminshaw (AAT of 1:49:22 and actual 1:54:56).

Ian Greenstreet and Rachael were the one tandem starters and finishers in what for them on other days would have been a modest AAT of 1:42:12 (actual 1:53:38). All the medallists are pictures above - Ian, Rachael, Kath, Claire, Deborah, Joe, Andrew and Neil.

The Group Team winners were Midlands with Joe Costello, Mark Hamer, and Simon Dighton. No club team finished three riders.

With the weekend proving the first heatwave of the year, giving riders no acclimatisation time, these were borderline conditions for bearable time trialling. Our respect to those who decided not to ride or were DNF, as well as to those who managed to ride or grovel the full 50 miles.

Our thanks to Colin Parkinson for handling the difficult circumstances and a challenging event. His team were excellent in terms of marshalling and refreshments and the timely production of the full results and VTTA awards.

Here is a list of finishers on AAT: