Top 10 finish for Cherry Valley Trio

National Team Time Trial - 02/07/2006 - Beverley

The Cherry Valley team of Ian, Jon and Gareth finished 7th place in the National 3up Team Time Trial on Sunday 2nd July. Despite never haven ridden as a trio before, the Cherry Valley team rode together well keeping their formation tight despite some interesting moments with traffic at Driffield.

The Cherry Valley trio rode the event over a sporting course from Beverly to Driffield. At Driffield the course turned ledt and headed on the busy road from Driffield to Bainton where it turned and retraced back to Driffield.

The earlier riders had very calm conditions and as the morning progressed the wind increased slightly and blew away the early morning mist to leave a very hot and humid day with the temperatures reaching 27C.

The Cherry Valley team started as one of the seeded teams toward the back of the field. With the temperature rising quickly, the Cherry Valley trio set off at 10am and quickly got into the race changing quickly and efficiently.

The team kept the turns tight and relatively even until around the 9 mile mark at Driffield where they turned left on the coastal road to head towards the turn. Once through the roundabout a traffic queue didn’t slow the trio down as they shot down the outside of the queue and under Jons instructions the team switched back tot eh left hand side of the road to resume their correct riding position. Having negotiated the next roundabout and heading toward the turn, Ian was still at the front and put the pressure on past the army barracks and the speed quickly went up to 33 mph.

The break in rhythm upset Gareth and he started to suffer whilst Ian and Jon remained strong and Gareth had a break by missing a turn. At the turn, the rhythm was once again broken as the Cherry Valley team negotiated the roundabout but heading back toward Driffield Ian was now doing longer turns as Gareth and Jon were having a ‘sticky’ patch.

Once the team had passed the turn at Driffield, they were heading back towards Beverley and were receiving some assistance from the wind but the temperature was rising all the time. Heading back toward Beverley Jon had recovered and was pushing hard with Ian whilst Gareth was starting to feel better as the trio were still keeping things tight. Out of Leconfield and toward the rise before the final turn at Beverley saw Ian putting in a big turn as Jon pulled through again to lead over the rise. A short turn by Gareth brought the team down to the final roundabout and the last mile of the race as Ian sprinted through and lead the team into the final straight. Jon came through once more with a powerful turn and Gareth led up the final rise over the railway bridge and Ian came through for the final time as the team fanned out across the road to cross the finish line 3 a breast in a time of 1.7.03 to finish 7th.