Cherry Valley pair take top two places

VTTA National 10 TT Championships - 12/05/2007 - Tuxford, Notts

Saturday saw Cherry Valley RT riders Ian Dalton and Jon Surtees competing in the VTTA National Championship 10 at Tuxford, they missed having a three man team in the event as Andy Moore was one of over 40 riders who had their entry returned, so it was down to Ian and Jon to fly the Cherry Valley flag.

The championship is for riders age 40 and over and Jon just scraped in as he was celebrating his 40th birthday. There are two main awards given actual times and standard times. The actual times favor the faster younger riders and the standard times the older riders. On paper Ian and Jon had the two quickest entry times and were seeded numbers 120 and 110 in the 120 rider field, but there were also a handful of other rider’s only seconds slower that would also be a challenging for the title.

The course starts in Tuxford and almost immediately joins the A1 southbound before exiting for Carlton on Trent and returning on the Old A1 to finish 1.5 miles south of Tuxford. With the longer leg on the A1 a northwesterly wind is favorable helping the riders out but this means a tough finish to the course, as the Old A1 has a poorer road surface and three slight rises where riders can loose any advantage they had earlier. But on Saturday the wind was more westerly so making things even, the only issue with the weather was, would the rain showers hold off.

As Jon and Ian finished their final warming up preparations you could see the clouds turning darker and darker. As Jon went down to the start it was still dry, 10 minutes later when Ian left for the start the first spots of rain began and it was very soon coming a heavy rain shower and both Cherry Valley riders were looking at having a wet race, as it turned out it was only the start and finish of the course that was wet, the bottom section had virtually missed all the rain.

As the riders times started to be posted on the result board early starter (Nr 40) Brian Sunter – Conder RC was almost the first rider to beat 22 minutes with a 22.01, this time was bettered 10 minutes later when Graham Rushworth – Team Swift (Allsports) clocked a 21.31 this time was good enough to win the standard award (+5.48) in the 40-49 age category by just 5 seconds from Cherry Valleys Ian Dalton. Rider number 70 Joe Murray – Hinckley CRC was almost 30 seconds faster than Graham with a 21.03, it was looking now that a 20 minute would be required to take top place. Vince Macklam – Yorkshire RC (Nr 80) fell short with a 21.21 as did Rodger Iddles – Stourbridge CC (Nr 100) 21.17 The final two seeded riders to finish now were Cherry Valleys Jon Surtees and Ian Dalton, but was the rain going to cause problems with their rides. As Jon powered up to the finish line he clocked a 21.01 to snatch the lead by just two seconds. By now Ian was on the Old A1 and as he got to the top of the first rise, a railway bridge with around 3 miles to the finish, a spectator shouted out “40 seconds” but Ian didn’t hear any more so was unsure if that was faster or slower than other riders. Just after this the roads turned wet from the earlier shower so the risk of getting a puncture increased, as Ian got to the finish straight he knew he was on a fast ride a crossed the finish line to clock a 19.59 ride and take first place by over a minute. Afterwards Ian was surprised to have won by such a large margin and was pleased the early season form from the Rudy Project series was continuing.