​Club Time Trail - 6th July 2021

Club TT Report - P140 - 6th July 2021

Assured by Daz Lyons that organising a Club TT was not as hard as it looked, I embarked on the daunting task of pulling things together. Very quickly, the Venta community rallied round and volunteers a-plenty appeared! On the night, riders were started by Dave Morris, guided safely round the course by marshals Charles Carr, Marius Kwint and Simon Hoult and timed at the finish by Ysarn Higgins and Stuart Gilmour with Chris Hutchins assisting me on sign-on.

17 riders found a kindly gap in the rain to race over the 10(ish) km course. There was a good representation from the Venta youth, with Samuel Hughes, Oscar Hoult, Matt Gilmour and Isla Hoult in action. Amongst the adult riders, road bikes were the weapon of choice, although the top three spots went to TT machines. Special kudos must go to Julian Gee from Sotonia and his co-rider, Roger Savage, who negotiated the course on their tandem. 

Matt Gilmour carried the night, with an impressive time of 20:49, with the top 10 all coming in under 26 minutes. In gauging responses afterwards, many riders mentioned to me that, despite my much-sprayed pothole warnings, the road surface is incredibly poor in places, especially the run down the hill to the quarry at Lower Brook.

With one TT under my belt, I can assure you that the whole process, whilst initially mystifying and requiring much paperwork, is very clearly outlined in the material that those experienced Venta race organisers have put together. Extra thanks to Daz Lyons for his patience in fielding my millions of messages! 

For any of you interested in plucking up the courage to volunteer to run an event like this, I’d encourage you to have a go. Working with others in the Club is such a great opportunity to get to put faces to names, make new friends and share in our joint love of this wonderful sport.

Jim Cascarini

Here's the TT results