On a very cold and windy but thankfully dry and generally bright Good Friday a full field of 140 riders rode the Welwyn Hilly time trial promoted by Welwyn Wheelers.  In all the organisers received more than 190 entries and used a reserve rider scheme to get as many people riding as they could.  In particular Hitchin based triathlon club FVS Tri had 31 riders on the start sheet with others getting a ride as reserves.  This year saw some modifications to the course due to safety concerns about racing through the middle of Codicote.  As a result the course was shortened to 26 miles with the start on the Whitwell Road just outside Codicote. 

The first 7 miles were into the teeth of a strong and cold north-westerly wind which drained energy before the first significant climbs.  Once the course turned west onto the A505 this became a fierce cross wind causing difficulty for some of those who had opted for deep section wheels.  However after the major climb of Great Offley came the fast downwind and slightly downhill section along Lilley Bottom where riders tried to claw back some of the lost time by engaging their biggest gears and exploiting the conditions to the full before the final three climbs.   The event was won by Tim Bayley of Arctic Premier RT in 1-05-50 beating last year’s winner Joel Stewart of  www.agiskoviner.com into third place.  Team Halfords Bikehut rider Emma Trott came back from two weeks of illness to be the fastest lady with 1-16-59. 

Nine Welwyn Wheelers rode the event with another three sidelined through injury or illness.  Fastest Wheeler was Adrian Trott in a time of 1-15-56, a puncture having put paid to Graeme Anderson’s ambitions of retaining his title as fastest Wheeler for another year.  Other notable rides came from David Scott opting to ride a traditional road bike rather than a specialist time trial machine recording 1-17-23 and Ed Checkley with 1-18-28.  Howard Ashmore justified his inclusion as a reserve rider by beating the one and a half hour mark on his first attempt of the course under race conditions recording a time of 1-29-58.

A big thank you to the marshalls who were standing out in the cold and wind for twice as long as the riders.

Pictures (care of Steve Hayward & Barry Plumley) from the event are now on the Gallery.

Top 5 were:  

1^st Tim Bayley (Arctic Premier RT) 1-05-50

2^nd Daniel Corner (Shorter Rochford Exclusive Ranges) 1-06-14

3^rd Joel Stewart (www.agiskoviner.com) 1-06-23

4^th Gavin Pardoe (Shorter Rochford Exclusive Ranges) 1-06-34

5^th Luke Clarke (Verulam CC) 1-06-37 

Fastest lady -  Emma Trott (Team Halfords Bikehut) 1-16-59

Fastest Vet on standard - Bruce Robinson (Shaftesbury CC) 1:11:54