On Wednesday, Alice and Emma Codling were representing the GYCC junior ladies at the Lotus Race League. The race started as a large group riding at roughly 15mph into the strong headwind, but after the chicane, the bunch fragmented. Alice, being a junior and therefore on restricted gearing, was not able to sprint into a tailwind to make contact with the bunch again, but rode in a small group for the majority of the race. Emma unfortunately lost contact with the group earlier on and so was distanced and rode most of the race on her own. Alice and Emma both rode strongly, however, taking 2nd and 3rd places.
On Sunday, Alice and Emma were grasstrack racing at West Suffolk Wheelers’ track in Fornham All Saints. The conditions were good, the rain earlier in the week having caused the ground to be soft, and the sunshine on the day helped make the riding comfortable. There were a few errors in the judging, so Alice was under the impression that all of the races were individual, however they were in an omnium format (all of the races contributing to a leader board). The final standings hinged on the 8km race at the end. Alice was outsprinted to the line, taking an excellent 2nd place. Emma finished in 3rd place. Alice said, ‘Overall, it was one of the most competitive races I have been involved in’.
Twenty three riders signed on for the Thursday TT and were lining up ready for the off, but at last minute, due to an unrelated incident on Browston Lane, the TT was cancelled.
Over the weekend was the Tour of Cambridgeshire, a time trial on the Saturday and a sportive on the Sunday. On the Saturday, Jenny Anderson and Jan Smith travelled to take part in the Tour of Cambridgeshire Chrono, a 16.5 mile time trial. Jan Smith completed the distance in 53:38 and Jenny finished in a time of 48:50, earning her 2nd place in her age category.
Also on Saturday, 3 members, Neil Goward, Louise and Bryan Averre, left Great Yarmouth and rode the 110 miles to Peterborough to take part in the Sunday Tour of Cambridgeshire sportive. In Peterborough, they met with 8 others who had driven the distance. On the Sunday, they travelled to the Peterborough Arena for 9am registration and in order to get into the various groups ready for the 12pm start time. In total, GYCC had 18 riders taking part. Riders completed the 84 mile closed road course in times varying from 3:30 to 6 hours. Mark Saunders time of 03:43:21 qualified him for the UCI World Finals. The majority of the riders returned home on Sunday night. On Monday Neil Goward and Bryan Averre, however, rode the distance back from Peterborough home to Great Yarmouth, covering just over 300 miles over the course of three days.
Also on Sunday, closer to home, was the annual Norwich 100. Ian Freel, Wayne Hallam, Leon Debbage, Anthony Field, Alan Wilson and Steven Wilson took part. The ride started outside the Forum, passed through the grounds of Holkham Hall, along the North Norfolk coast, then back to the finish in the park next to Norwich Cathedral. The weather was miserable to start with and stayed cloudy and got colder on the coast. It only started to warm up as they were starting to get closer to Norwich on the return leg. The event was the first 100 mile ride for Alan and Anthony, but it was Ian’s third in nearly as many weeks.
Jamie Mordecai took part in the Beccles Triathlon. It consisted of 480m swim, 20.3km bike and 6.7km run. He completed the swim in 15:25, the bike leg in 42:09 and the run in 35:58 completing in a total time of 1:36:43, finishing 73rd out of 135. An excellent result since this was his longest triathlon to date and beat his own personal target time by nearly 10 minutes.
