Well that’s the end of the 2020 season. Most of you will probably be glad to see the back of it.

For the Club it was a shame that lots of our Thursday Evening Events didn’t go ahead this year. For some the season never really got started, with work and family taking priority over cycling.

But some positives did come out of it…

What was encouraging was that lots of us decided to take part in events and support the Club in difficult times. We welcomed some new faces and also had others decide to take a break.

The N&DCA programme was cancelled early in the year and lots of ECCA races also lost, this was a shame as we have a strong team of riders and as a club can compete with most proper cycle clubs.

Without the focus of season long competitions most of us turned to Open Events to get our fix of racing, the opener for lots of us was the Eastern District Cycling Association 10m on the B10/37R. A packed field of 90 riders on the start sheet. New club rider Ben Stancombe set the early season pace, edging out Paul Pardoe and Matt Senter by seconds as they finished 4,5 and 6 respectively. These three also travelled to the RTTC National 10m Championships in August this time Paul just managing to beat Ben by 2 seconds and fly the club colours at the National 10.

Within our ranks we also have a number of talented veteran riders and between us always feature on most VTTA Start Sheets locally and Nationally. This season Malcolm Smith finished in 3rd place in the BMCR National TT, he also set a new 25m veterans record.  Jamie Murray and Martin Bullen have represented the club at both the National Vets 50m and 25m Championships this season, Jamie placing  20th and 11th respectively and setting a new vets record for the 50m and the 25m. Martin Atkinson has made a good recovery from injury last season and it’s great to see him make a comeback. Ady McHale continues to go from strength to strength and set PB’s in 2020 at both 10m and 25m this season.

Next season we are promoting more TT events than usual to help support local cycling. Myself, Dave Yarham and Phil Jones will be promoting, with support from Paul Pardoe and Mark Tomlinson. We will be relying on all our club mates to help with these as much as they can, just giving up a few hours of your weekend help makes it so much easier for us the organizers.

Some 2020 highlights include:

Ben Stancombe 25m Mens club record 48.59s

Malcolm Smith 25m Veterans club record 52.18s

Jamie Murray 50m Veterans club record 1.50.36

Jamie Murray 25m Veterans club record 52.12s

Kevin Hobbs 25m Veterans club record 52.06s

 

Kevin Hobbs   –   20/10/2020