Star Bikes Circuit TT championship Event 5 – Tuesday 6th May 2008

 

Paul Purdy made it 2 wins on the trot on Tuesday night with a convincing victory over Dean Fulstow in round 5 at Etton. His winning margin of 12 seconds was exactly twice that in the previous event at Little Weighton and now puts him at the head of the overall points table. In third place and slowly improving after a delayed start to the season was Neil Cleminshaw, with Pete FS and Steve Macklin both close behind. With only 37 second covering these 5 riders and it looks like one of them will head the table at the end of the season. The only questions being which one will win and in what order they will finish.

An equally close battle was being fought behind between the next batch of riders, Mark McKeown and John Askew, and then Nathan and the 3 marks (Ollernshaw, Summer and Walker) who finished in that order with only a handful of seconds separating them.

It seemed summer had finally arrived and brought some much need warmth to the country, with warm temperatures and only a slight easterly wind blowing. As usual however once up to racing speed the wind seemed much stronger and was blowing in the riders faces as they rode the longest and predominantly down hill leg from the top of the climb after the start. The course is always slowest when the wind blows this way and times were generally about 90second slower than when the wind blows down the hill.

The ladies were once again well represented with 3 riders competing over 2 laps of the circuit although Jane continued to ride another lap and recorded a highly respectable time. Dawn and Alison both rode and enjoyed the practice for their forthcoming triathlon debut on Sunday.

Apologises about the lack of reports from the last 2 events. The bitterly cold prologue was won be Neil by just 2 seconds from Paul Purdy (who you may recall beat Karl by a single second last year to win) with Steve third a further 8 seconds adrift. This year the wind was more of a side wind, unlike last year when a storming back wind led to some ridiculously fast times. The temperatures were also very cold which resulted in riders feeling like their lungs had been ripped out when they finished.

Paul took his first victory 2 weeks ago after beating Steve and Pete FS at Little Weighton with 30 seconds covering the first 3 riders. Unfortunately as I was on holiday with Mike (having to endure mile after mile of new Spanish tarmac in balmy (mid 70s) temperatures and excessive amounts of ice-cold San Miguel lager) I don’t know what else happen and so can’t report on it.

On a more serious note I can report that the Costa Dorada (approximately 100 miles south of Barcelona) is a fantastic area for cycling with some superb and very quiet (traffic free) roads in a semi-mountainous terrain once away from the costal strip. Five miles inland from the beach and the roads climb gently into mountains that top out at about 1000m above sea level. The area is used extensively by the Tour of Cataluyna car rallies and pro-bike race and seem to have been freshly resurfaced everywhere. Having been out there 5 times in the last 2 years and travelled extensively I can certainly recommend it. With a half-board hotel for 5 costing less than £600 (for us all) it certainly offers good value for money too!

Finally can all riders check the points table and advise if they have not been awarded marshalling points especially for the last 2 events as I don’t have a record who tuned up

 

HTRC Star Bike circuit time trial championship 2008
Event 5 - Etton 13.5 Miles 6/5/2008
Position	rider name	TIME	@	Average speed		Points
1	Paul Purdy	31:45	00:00	25.51	mph	50
2	Dean Fulstow	31:57	00:12	25.35	mph	47
3	Neil Cleminshaw	32:06	00:21	25.23	mph	45
4	Pete Fielding-Smith	32:08	00:23	25.21	mph	44
5	Steve Macklin	32:22	00:37	25.03	mph	43
6	Mark McKeown	32:45	01:00	24.73	mph	42
7	John Askew	32:57	01:12	24.58	mph	41
8	Nathan Chester	33:48	02:03	23.96	mph	40
9	Mark Ollernshaw	33:53	02:08	23.91	mph	39
10	Mark Summer	33:54	02:09	23.89	mph	38
11	Mark Walker	34:00	02:15	23.82	mph	37
12	Dave Percival	34:12	02:27	23.68	mph	36
13	Paul Kilvington	34:29	02:44	23.49	mph	35
14	Simon Mason	35:17	03:32	22.96	mph	34
15	Andy Carroll	35:21	03:36	22.91	mph	33
16	John Savage	35:38	03:53	22.73	mph	32
17	Mike Kilgour	36:02	04:17	22.48	mph	31
18	John Lockwood	36:09	04:24	22.41	mph	30
19	Dave Millson	36:28	04:43	22.21	mph	29
19	Alan Kaye	38:40	06:55	20.95	mph	28
20	David Watson	41:59	10:14	19.29	mph	27
n/a	Phillip Eden	DNF
n/a	Tim White	DNS				-10
Ladies
1	Jayne Earle	26:16		20.56	mph	50
2	Dawn Sharpe	30:17		17.83	mph	47
3	Alison Lingard	32:09		16.80	mph	45
Private entries
1	Samuel Dyason	35:14	03:29	22.99	mph	0