Congleton Cycling Club

First, First, First and Wet, Wet, Wet for Congletonians

On Saturday, 28^th June, Lynne and Neil Skellern, Karl Austin and Edgar Reynolds took all the major honours in the Cheshire Road Club 50-mile Time Trial on the local Cranage – Chelford – Knutsford course in windy but warm conditions. Lynne was 1^st Lady in 2 hours 28 minutes, Neil was 1^st Man in 1hour 55 minutes, Karl was 5^th Man, with a creditable 2 hours 3 minutes and together with Edgar with his 2hours 27 minutes, in his first 50-mile since his accident in February, they secured the 1^st Team prize for Congleton Cycling Club!

The Club’s weekly Time Trials continued on Tuesday 24^th June with a 25-miler on the Chelford course. The fastest Congleton rider was Karl Austin in 1 hour and 17seconds, followed by Brendan McLaughlin with 1:04:34 and Tony Elliott with 1:06:28, then Denise Hurst in her first Time Trial of the year, in 1:12:14 and Pete Nelson in 1:12:34. On Tuesday, 1^st July, the 10-miler was held on the Chelford course in very wet and blustery conditions. The fastest Congleton rider was Brendan McLaughlin in 24:49, followed by Tony Elliott in 25:18, then Steve Sladin in 27:26 and Pete Nelson in 28:47. The leader board, with seven events remaining, shows Karl Austin with 125 points, Tony Elliot with 106 points and then a tightly-knit group of Brendan McLaughlin, Andy Malbon and Pete Nelson with 70, 69 and 68 points respectively.

Last Sunday, the M&D TTA Championship, incorporating the VTTA National Championship, 100-miles Time Trial visited Congleton, which was one of the many loops within the Middlewich / Knutsford / Siddington ring. Our Congleton Club was represented by four Veterans (over 40): Peter Nelson, Edgar Reynolds, Karl Austin and Neil Skellern – in descending order of age. The weather was rather grim with a strong wind throughout and continuous light rain and then very heavy downpours in the last two hours. These conditions did not prevent our riders from winning the VTTA National Championship Team prize with Karl Austin recording 4 hours 26 minutes, Edgar Reynolds 5 hours 17 minutes and Pete Nelson 5 hours 46 minutes. Neil Skellern did not ride the VTTA event but won the M&D TTA event with a fine 4 hours 3 minutes which was only 1 minute slower than his previous best on this course and 1 minute faster than last year. Karl’s performance gave him 9^th place overall. David Birch from Stourbridge was fastest in 4 hours and 30 seconds but did not qualify for the Championships as he is not a member of either M&D TTA or VTTA. Neil Skellern was therefore 2^nd fastest.

Rob Waghorn’s latest AUDAX ride was the 313k Midlander Super Grimpeur from Sutton Coldfield to Holmfirth and back with over 5000m of climbing, including Axe Edge, Cat & Fiddle, Holme Moss, Mam Nick. – an 18 hour epic, i.e. including rapid descents on narrow roads in the dark!

On 27^th July, Rob Waghorn is organising 200k and 100k AUDAX rides, The Hills and Plains of Cheshire, starting and finishing in Congleton. This is a tribute to our long-serving Chairman, Graham McCargo, who passed away one year ago. For entry details, see the website: AUDAX UK CALENDAR.

For full results and other details of Club activities see
www.congletoncyclingclub.org.uk

The Club meets every Thursday at 8.30pm at the Rugby Club, Park Street and welcomes anyone who would like to swap ideas and stories on all cycling topics.