Mercia Report 04-04-2010

Richard Knott has started off the racing season off by competing in two duathlons. The first was the No Thrills Duathlon held at Market Bosworth Water Trust Lake & organised by the 1485 Triathlon Club. The running course was 10 km around the lake & a 13-mile cycle ride. Richard finished 32nd out of 85 starters in a time of 1 hr 24 mins 23 seconds. The winner was Craig Twigg in 1 hr 9 mins 10secs.

The second was held at Newbury & organised by Team Kennet Athletics & Triathlon Club. The competitors had to do 10km of running & 15 miles of cycling. Richard did well in this event finishing in 18th place out of 150 starters in 1hr 33min 31 sec (he was the 8th fastest cyclist). The winner was former Swadlincote resident Paul Wileman in 1hr 24min 08 secs who now lives near Newbury.

Ben Startin was one of the 892 finishers out of 1291 starters in this year's Cheshire Cat 100 mile Sportive which started & finished at Crewe Alexandra’s Football Ground. The route was through the Cheshire lanes with the steep climbs of Blacky Bank, Bridstone & the 1 mile climb at 1 in 4 of Mow Cop. Ben’s finishing time was 6 hrs 41minutes.

Despite the cold conditions the first 5-mile evening time trial on the Anslow circuit attracted 19 riders. The fastest was David Clarke (Pendragon Colnago) in 11 min 58 seconds. In second place & the fastest Mercia HBM rider was Jack Hugill in 12 50 followed by Matt Simons in 12 54 & Keith Staley in 12 55. The rest of the times were Richard Knott 12 58, Christian Aucote (Team Kenda) 12 58, Simon Parker 13 32, Peter Collins 13 48, Noel Adams 13 49, Mick Skivington 14 04, Phil Jones 14 10, Ewan Davidson 14 15, Ben Startin 14 20, Alec Taylor 14 31, Mark Eccleston 15 08, Kieron Patterson 15 14, Jeff Slinn 15 24, Andy Burton 17 00 & Peter Rose 19 15.