First and Second as Cherry Valley RT also win fastest team

Yet another cold and misty morning on Sunday March 27th 2005, saw Cherry Valley riders Ian Dalton and Andy Moore fighting hard for a win in the Spalding Hilly Time trial. The course was a hard undulating affair which never had any flat sections in it and although it was not windy, the easterly breeze caused the return leg to the finish to be hard as the riders tried to keep the pace high into the cold breeze back to the finish. The course was based on the main road from Bourne to Corby Glen before turning right toward Grantham and returning to finish just outside Bourne covering 27 miles.

Continuing his good start to the season and first of the Cherry Valley riders to set off was Andy Lintin. Andy started quickly and stuck to a good constant pace to and from the turn to finish in a time of 1.4.28 which was good enough for 6th place overall. With Andy Moore and Ian Dalton still to finish, baring mechanical failure, it looked likely that the fastest team on aggregate time was already going to be Cherry Valley RT.

Andy Moore was next on the road and made a rapid start to his race and quickly settled into a smooth rhythm. Opting to ride his road racing bike for a third week in a row and deciding not to use his disc wheel, it looked like Andy was going to face a tough battle with team made Ian. With Ian the last seeded rider on the road was already 5 seconds down on Andy Moores time at the 5 mile point and it looked like Ian has his work cut out again for the second day in a row. Nearer the turn at Grantham, Ian was still just a few seconds down on Andy but it was going to be a close call on the return leg to the finish. In previous races over the last few weeks, Ian had gone much quicker over the latter sections of the race and today was to be no different.

Sporting his National Circuit Time Champions skinsuit for the day and opting to use his specialist time trial machine with disc wheel, Ian made the return leg to the finish pay for him and recorded a winning time of 1.00.53, averaging nearly 27mph, and only 27 seconds ahead of team mate Andy Moore who recorded a time of 1:1.20 for second place.

Although disadvantaged by not using his time trial bike and disc wheel, Andy was pleased with his result as the gap between Andy and Ian becomes consistently closer. Ian, still suffering the effects in his legs from the Rudy Project Round 1 the previous day was just glad to get back to winning ways.

Cherry valley RT won the fastest team award with ease as Andy Lintin was the third counting rider in the team for the fastest aggregate time as former National Champion Ian Cammish (Sonic Cycles), long distance specialist Chris Hopkinson (Matlock CC) and Eddie Humphreys (GB Fire Service RT) split the Cherry Valley trio up on the winning board.

Fastest Team - Cherry Valley RT (Ian Dalton, Andy Moore, Andy Lintin)