CYCLINGRECOVERING from a crash in the Premier Calendar Tour of DoonHame road race in Scotland a few days before, Lowestoft cyclist Joe Skipper was the quickest rider in the Godric CC club time trial.

CYCLING

RECOVERING from a crash in the Premier Calendar Tour of DoonHame road race in Scotland a few days before, Lowestoft cyclist Joe Skipper was the quickest rider in the Godric CC club time trial.

The pile-up in Scotland left Skipper with a small fracture in his arm and ten stitches in his chin but a few days later declared: 'The arm is getting better every day; the first day I could barely move it and now I feel like I have nearly full movement.'

His time in the Godric event in this physical condition was a remarkable 21:43 (27.5mph), which might fairly be called a speedy recovery.

Skipper rides road races under British Cycling rules for Cycles Dauphin RT but in events under Cycling Time trials rules he is a Velo Club Baracchi rider.

Also riding on Tuesday for VCB was Liam Gentry, whose own time was 22:01. Simon Asher of VC Norwich recorded 22:23 and Will Bamber of Cult Racing 22:37.

On Sunday Skipper and Gentry rode in the Glade CC road race at Saffron Walden, graded as National B for elite, first, second and third cats.

Skipper, in his Cycles Dauphin kit, was placed 17th of only 20 finishers. He was the fourth Under 23 finisher. Gentry followed the wrong wheel up a hill into the wind half way through the race and when a gap opened between the rider in front and the leaders, it was not possible to get back on. The winner was Jack Kirk of Team Zappi's.

In the related Hainault road race in the Eastern Road Race League for third and fourth cats, Ben McCluskey of VCB was a non-finisher and Nick Esser, who has also crashed recently, was a non-starter. Roger Maidment of East London Velo won.

John Thompson of VCB rode the Easterley Road Club 25.2-mile hilly time trial at Ugley, which went via Henham to Thaxted and via Denham Green back to Thaxted to finish on the 2nd circuit just west of Denham Green.

He said: 'My time of 1-23:56 was hardly fast but it was okay comparatively. It is certainly a hilly event.'

Alan Stapleton of Chelmer CC won. Usually well under the hour, his time on this occasion was a much slower 1-00:55. Thompson said that at least he knew what to expect by way of hills, as he has recently ridden the same roads in Audax events.

The VCB club run set off as usual from Cotmer Road and split into two. Pat Harbord and Alex Blake worked round to Acle for a tailwind return and the main group followed a time-honoured route through Halesworth, Peasenhall and Saxmundham to Dunwich, returning through Wenhaston and Blyford.

Information and entry forms for Beccles Cycle for Life charity ride on May 9 can be found on the website www.becclescycleforlife.org