Here come the girls! TT Series Round 3

44 TT racers lined up at H/Q (King William IV, Brigg).  More than 30% of the entrants were female.  Jayne Taylor of Lincsquad led the ladies home in 1st place with an amazing time of 26:15.  It is great to see Jane back in top form.  Close on Jane’s heels in second place (with a PB) was J Worsley, only 19 seconds separating the top 2 ladies.  Continuing her fantastic form and setting a new PB was V Howden (27:05).  4th place on the night for the ladies with another PB was our C Morgan, she stormed over the line in 27:25.  V Wilson also managed to beat her other half, and I’m looking forward to watching the battle continue on the TT circuit between these two, Vikki has TT bragging rights in her household for the next fortnight!  6 more ladies raced their hearts out; T Smaller, J England; S Hall; B Hollis; C Doherty; C Orr and K Scutt; completing the racing for the ladies and setting a high standard.  Out of 14 ladies on the night, 6 recorded PBs.  For some of these ladies it was their first time racing and the efforts that they put in were captured visually by Nigel Pennington.  The ladies appeared to be having a great time and this reflected in each picture!  Great work ladies!

1st junior, placing 26th out of 43 racers and with another PB was owned by J Riby of Lincsquad.  Congratulations Jacob and we are looking forward to seeing how the series continues for you.

“Good morale in cycling comes from good legs” (Sean Yates).  Bearing this in mind, could doubling the number of legs on a bicycle increase the morale even further?  Last nights TT saw 2 tandems race, P and C Smart rode the first tandem (an Orbit Lightning) to victory in a time of 25:32, while P Chapill and teammate came 2nd on the night. Congratulations and it was great to watch the tandems in action.

Leading the men home on the night was R Walker of Scunthorpe Poly (21:08).  While Lincsquadders R Robinson 21:21 (PB) in 2nd place and B Creasy 21:41 (PB) completed the mens’podium.  10 more PBs were set amongst the men; worthy of mention were R Stenton of 53/11 and S Quirke of Lincsquad who share 5th overall places on the night with PB times of 22:47.  In the words of Chris McCormack “When your legs scream stop and your lungs are bursting, that’s when it starts.  That’s the hurt locker.  Winners love it in there”.  Hopefully in agreement with this statement as they also posted PBs were J Chambers; D Hepworth; R Butteril; S Wild; D Stow; S Wilson and M Austin.  It was a fantastic night for PBs and hopefully this great form will continue.

Every effort is made each TT race night to ensure the race goes ahead in as safe an environment as possible. An essential part of this are the marshalls, they make sure that riders know the race direction as well as being a visual sign to drivers that riders are on the road.  The marshalls pass on information which may be pertinent to riders’ results.  This is the 3^rd time that Dave Gibbs has been reported for “drafting” Jacob Riby!  Only joking Dave, I just wanted to let you know that your efforts in supporting Jacob have not gone unnoticed and Lincsquad appreciate you giving up your time to ensure Jacob and our juniors’ safety on each race night.  Thanks again.

In summary, these valiant racers raced in sun and cloudy conditions, the met office recorded the temp as 18 degrees. The wind speed was 14mph with 21mph gusts.  Last week’s spot prize ( a rather lovely bobble hat) for having the best race face was won by Kevin Wilson of Racing Team Dawson (photo attached).  The raffle prize of 2 x cinema tickets (donated by Camilla Morgan) was won by Mark Turner.  Thanks as always to our race marshalls and timekeeping team.  Thanks to Rob for racer entries and Wayne Beedham for excellent last minute holding up duties which assisted Malcolm when the tandems were being started. Thanks to the King Billy pub for being excellent hosts.  Thanks also to Nigel Pennington for the fantastic action pictures.  Finally, please remember that if you are now inspired to take part in the Lincsquad TT series, that you must commit to marshall 1 round, (we need marshalls inclusive of and from round 7), be a Lincsquad member prior to round 5 and complete a minimum of 6 rounds to qualify for the series.  See you all soon.

Thank you

Pam (TT sec).