Ely & District Cycling Club - B&T Motor Repairs Press Release 31st August 2021
Despite having won countless club time trial races, and having put in some extremely good results in open competitions, until Saturday Darran Bennett had never taken an outright win in an open competition. However, Bennett put in an immense performance on Saturday's time trial race hosted by Breckland Cycling Club on the B30/1B course near Attleborough in Norfolk to take his first outright victory in open competition. Riding at an average speed of very nearly 30mph, Bennett completed the 30 mile course in a time of 1 hour and 49 seconds to give him the win, albeit by a slender margin of 9 seconds over 2nd placed rider Paul Jay. John Manlow was the other member of the Ely & District Cycling Club - B&T Motor Repairs racing in the event, and the fact that his time of 1:05:59 gave him only 14th place was a reflection on the strength of the field. Bennett's time was also a new club record over 30 miles for the Ely & District Cycling Club - B&T Motor Repairs, breaking Bennett's existing record set in 2019.
A few days before on Thursday evening father and son duos of Joshua and Harvey Woodroffe and Neil and Lucas Bowman were once again off competing in some unseasonable cyclocross racing in the 4th round of the Ashwell CC Summer Cyclocross series. In the Junior race Harvey put it another strong performance to finish 1st overall, giving him 1st place in the the boys' U12 category, while Lucas finished 6th overall and 4th in the boys' U12 category. In the senior races, Joshua finished 5th in the Novice category while Neil finished 14th overall in the Open race, giving him 2nd in the V50 category classification.
Harvey Woodroffe was racing again on Sunday at the Mildenhall Bike Fest, this time riding on a fixed gear bike with no brakes on a grasstrack circuit, which for the Under 12 category C racers including Harvey was 260 metres long. The first discipline was a one lap sprint. Harvey was in 2nd place going into the final corner but ran wide wide and had to settle for 3rd position. In the next three disciplines (an elimination race, an unknown distance race and a scratch race) Harvey finished in fourth place, his inexperience in grasstrack racing leading to him making tactical mistakes. This meant that he finished in fourth place overall, just off the podium.
Rory Havis was also racing in the Mildenhall Bike Fest. Time trials are usually held on tarmac, the smoother and faster the better, but at the Mildenhall Bike Fest the organisers put on the 'Fenland Flyer' gravel time trial, a race against the clock held on a mixture of off-road surfaces. Riding on a full suspension mountain bike, Havis posted a time of 35 minutes and 10 seconds, giving him a podium position with third place overall.
Photographs:
Darran Bennett on his way to a club record and outright win. Credit Geoff Frost.
John Manlow racing in the Breckland CC 30 mile race. Credit Geoff Frost.
Harvey Woodroffe racing in the Mildenhall Bike Fest grass track race. Credit Fergus Muir.
Harvey Woodroffe racing in the Mildenhall Bike Fest grass track race. Credit Fergus Muir.
Neil Bowman racing in the Ashwell CC Summer CX series.
Lucas Bowman racing in the Ashwell CC Summer CX series.
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