Tonight saw Round 8 in the East Devon Evening Ten series, and twenty riders from various clubs headed out to Honiton to give it their all.

*****    STOP PRESS    *****  Announcement – provided we can sort out organisers from amongst ourselves, the four clubs who run the evening tens (Exeter Whs CC, Cranbrook CC, Sid Valley CC, CS Dynamo), we are hoping we can extend the season to the end of July, giving us additional tens on the 24th and 31st of July. We will hopefully be able to update you on this after next week’s event.

Back to this evening – many thanks to CS Dynamo members David Hall & Paul Martin for managing sign-on and results, plus Juan, Tony, George and Ted for their marshalling, whilst timekeeping was provided by EWCC’s Sally Hutter and Mike Rose.

Zooming round the course in one of the fastest times this year was George Kimber on 21.50. Last weekend George was competing in Belgium, in the Midden-Brabant Poort Omloop Road Race, where he finished a creditable 18^th of the 150+ elite starters . . . and this evening . . . . paying his fiver and signing on in a car park next to the A30 near Honiton and competing against a rather different set of riders. But it’s all bike racing innit?

Aidan King (FTP) was runner-up at 23.29 then James Greenaway again going well at 24.12, the fastest of the six Exeter Wheelers riding.

It was not an easy night. My belief is that a NW wind on the course is worst of all, worse than a straight-in-your-face wind. My belief is that the wind coming slightly from the right as we head west gets funnelled along the hedges and then on the single eastwards leg doesn’t give us the backing we’d like as we are sheltered by the hedge on t’other side.

An aside –

“What were you doing on the 3^rd of July 2024”?

“Yeah, the third of July 2024, when Mark Cavendish won his 35^th stage of the Tour de France, breaking Mercx’s record of 34 wins…”

What were we doing? Getting ready to go off bike racing ourselves ! An evening ten in East Devon, but all part of the same world of putting yourself through it on two wheels. And we love it. Mostly.

The results – I’ll get the updated league table up tomorrow.

After 7 of the 9 events here is the latest league table. A reminder that a rider’s best 7 rides count, with points being awarded at 10 points for last place in an event, and one point more for each place upwards from last place. There will be prizes, which whilst non-monetary and not valuable we neverthless think you’ll like – at end of the series for categories – top male TT, top female TT, top male road bike, top female road bike plus same for v40, v50, v60 and v70, plus a jnr/juv/esp. prize. One prize per rider only.

Many thanks go to Adrian, Mark, Matt, Lee and the rest of the good people of Sid Valley CC for giving up their time on this glorious summer’s evening to run the ‘ten’. 16 riders signed on, the conditions were reasonable, with the wind being a crosswind.

Fastest on the night was Luke Osborne (Banbridge CC), settled in now on his new TT machine, who rode the second fastest ride of the series, in a time of 21minutes and 11 seconds. Luke is off to compete in the CTT National 50 Mile TT Championship on Sunday, on a course near Poole in Dorset. ‘Spindata’ currently predicts him a 24^th place of the 130+ competitors with a time of 1:50:5. Good luck Luke, hope all goes well and that you are ‘on one’.

Young local roadman Felix Whetter (Mid-Devon CC) took runner-up spot on 22:59 with Exeter Wheeler’s Gideon Aroussi in third just over a minute back at 24.04.

Good to see EWCC rider Dave Wilkinson back out there, after a long period of struggling with long Covid. Get properly better soon Dave, the SW cyclo-cross season awaits….

Of the 16 who took part, 6 were over the age of 60 . . . . where be the young’uns to?

A reminder that the event on 17^th July is Women and Juniors only. Spread the word.

I will get the updated league table up here tomorrow.

Pete B

Vets. Age Categories: A = 40>44, B = 45>49, C = 50>54, D = 55>59, E = 60>64, F = 65>69, G = 70>74