Cherry Valley riders dominate in wind and rain

Lincoln Wheelers Hilly 25 - 9/04/2005 - Course C25/23

Despite high cross winds, rain, freezing conditions and a crash, Cherry Valley RT romped away with the first 3 places in the top 10 of the Lincoln Wheelers Hilly on Saturday 9th April 2005 and yet again proved too strong for any local challenges.

The Lincoln course took in a total of four climbs on a course based around the Middle Street from Scampton to Willoughton and back along the B1398 and covered a total distance of 25 miles.

First of the Cherry Valley riders to finish was Gareth Williams, who completed the course in a time of 1.00.6 which placed him second behind frequent visitor to this event, Geoff Platts (Team Clean) who recorded a time of 59.37.

Catching team mate Aaron Tuplin in the last mile of the race, Andy Lintin (Cherry Valley RT) flew up to the finish line in a brilliant time of 59.00 which would eventually give him 3rd place overall. Pleased with his race, Andy said he felt quite strong today and found the climbs quite comfortable using the same gearing for each hill.

Aaron Tuplin (Cherry Valley RT) had yet another frustrating and painful days racing and was unable to finish the race. Just 100 yards from the finish line and at the top of the final climb out of Scampton Village, Aaron was stamping hard on the pedals to sprint to the finish line when his race came to a very painful finale. As Aaron sprinted over the top of the climb and into the final yards of the race his chain snapped sending him spinning across his bike and the tarmac and eventually leaving Aaron in a twisted heap with his bike on the floor. Upto this point Aaron was in 10th position overall, but with no chain and badly bleeding legs he could not make it to the finish line. Not believing his run of poor look, Aaron explained afterwards that this was his third crash of the week having come off his bike on wet roads in training during the week. Meanwhile, older brother Sam Tuplin (Cherry Valley RT), home for the Easter break from university, was putting in another solid performance on this dismal day. Despite suffering from the effects of a cold he had been carrying all week, Sam finished with a time of time of 1.7.11 which was eventually good enough for 22nd place in the Lincoln event.

The real battle for the victory was once again going to be between team mates Andy Moore and Ian Dalton. With Andy edging some of the early season results in his favour, this was once again going to be battle right up to the line and a result decided by only seconds. Andy Moore was first to finish and recorded a time of 57.44 to place him first on the leader board. The only rider who could now beat Andy was Ian. Finishing hard up the final climb of Scampton, Ian crossed the finish line with a time of 57.00 averaging 26.3 mph which was 44 seconds than team mate Andy and placing him first and giving Cherry Valley RT the first three placings for the seconds time this season.