First Rudy Project win of the season for Ian

Rudy Project TT Series round 7 - 01/10/2006 - Hartington, Derbyshire

Ian bounced back from the previous weeks defeat to win the 40+ age category of Round 7 of the Rudy Project National Time Trial series on Saturday 30th September. The event was organised by Matlock CC on a course was base at Hartington in the heart Peak District.

The course started in Long Dale just east of Hartington at the junction with the B5054 where it was uphill all the way to the main A515. The course continued north on the A515 to the Longnor junction where it turned left at this crossroads and then through some tricky descents to cross the Tissington Trail and Cronkston Grange before another short climb. The course then took a left turn into Long Dale before the final 4 miles of gradual down hill to complete the lap. The race distance was 20.80 miles with 40+ age category riders covering two laps of this testing circuit.

Ian had been out the weekend before to have a ride around the course so he had a good idea of what to expect. The first climb up to the A515 was the main climb on the course but not the only one but Ian was expecting the course to be hillier than it was with it being based in the Peak District. On the day of the race there were near perfect conditions with a light wind from the South so the A515 section was fast with speeds over 40mph on the downhill sections. The Long Dale section was on a minor road and although mainly downhill, the road surface and the slight head wind made this section fairly hard going.

As a seeded rider, Ian started the time trial fourth from last in the 40+ age category, the main riders he needed to have time checks on both started behind him. These riders were Ray Hughes (Clarence Whs) and Dave Dent (GS Stella) who are 2nd and 1st overall in the 8 event series.

A time check just after 1 mile on the climb and Ian was 2 seconds ahead of Ray Hughes and 5 seconds ahead of Dave Dent, but Ian didn’t get that information until the 8 mile mark of the race. After 8 miles of the race, Ians lead was growing and he had a 14 second advantage over Dave Dent and 51 seconds over Ray Hughes.

Ian felt to be going well during the hilly race and several riders had previously commented that that the hillier course would suit him. With two miles to go the time gaps look good, but Ian did know how good until after he had finished as Dave Dent had punctured just before the completion of the first lap. In the last round Ian had finished 2nd to Dave and had lost all the time to Dave on the first lap, but in this round Ian had been in front from the start and it would have been good to see what time Dave could have finished with. Ian continued to extend his lead on Ray Hughes to finish with a gap of 1min 44 seconds at an average speed over 25mph and take his first win in the series.

This result moves Ian into third place overall in the series with the final round in two weeks time. Dave Dent has won the series with total of 299 point out of a maximum 300, Ray Hughes has 296 points and Ian 290. With the best five results to count Ian needs to win the final round to take second place overall.