2022 Midweek TT Series - Week 5 - A Happy Accident

16 June 2022

A happy accident - no, this does not refer to what Boris Johnson calls his adulterous lovechildren. But to creating a last-minute course which turned out to be a hit and all got some satisfaction from it. I don't think many looked at the roundabouts of the A199 and thought, hmm, I miss you

As promised, this will be a "bumper" edition, of weeks 4 and 5. Initially so to ensure Elijah's win wasn't forgotten but since he won this week too. I can instead insert Rolling Stones references (I'm already 2 down).

Last week I was also away for a wedding. Which meant the Hall & Oates hair had to go. Probably another reason why Gerry didn’t recognise me again this week. I seem to have a new look to confuse him each week. Being at a wedding also meant having to buy some new clothes. Hannah says I don’t buy enough clothes for myself. Rubbish I said, I ordered a new NoPinz skinsuit a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, this doesn’t count. I guess you can’t always get what you want.

The wedding was great, much fun was had. On free pimms one can have a lot of fun. As the night wrapped up I did feel a bit like a midnight rambler. As the reception was in the countryside, making our way back to the hotel afterwards did make it seem like we were living in a ghost town. Hannah looked lovely too, she’s a rainbow. It’s all getting very serious for us now, less than 2 months to go til our wedding day. I think soon I may need some emotional rescue.

After the wedding we stuck around in Cumbria at my parents, before having our day in Liverpool to see the Stones at Anfield. Ah it was fantastic. I have a collection of ageing rockers that I feel so lucky to have seen. Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Paul Simon, Sting. Springsteen and McCartney next! Even though the Rolling Stones look like they’ve began to melt, they can still rock. Jagger has incredible energy for a 78 year old man. I can’t move my hips like him at 30, let alone 78.

I did of course miss last weeks 5M TT. What I hear was a soggy affair. Some of you I am sure were wanting some shelter. As mentioned before, Elijah won. This concludes the week 4 report.

I am increasingly busy, covering someone else’s job at work as well as my own. So, time is a bit short. Not conducive to my usual set of ramblings.

We had a new lefty leaning course last night. I would always be heading left than to the right, wouldn’t you say…. Roadworks have thrown a spanner my way each week, which makes organising this even more time consuming that it already is. But we’re getting there. We used number 30 for the first time this year last night which was nice. Though there were 6 DNS’.

The new course was a bit too much for some. Even though we had marshals on each corner, a gpx and google maps route. 4 people still managed to get lost. Almost impressive in a way. At least this a mistake, I’d like to think, they won’t repeat. Those lost in the dense forests near of Letham Mains were Steve Canney, Warren Crombie, Alasdair Easton and Jonathan Hartley.

There were 4 female competitors last night. The fastest of which was Sarah Scott of ERC in 26:43. Yolanda Solans was 2nd fastest in 27:20. Sarah Emslie 3rd in 28:50 and 4th was Abigail Corsie in 29:08. There were 2 ladies who DNS – so a sign up of 6 from 30 is not too bad. Let’s keep it up.

Only a couple of juniors last night. First was Alasdair Easton who finished in the given time of 30:00. Alasdair now has a compass, map and orienteering course on his Christmas list. Xander Graham was the other junior last night. The tight turns suited someone who has the turning circle of a gerbil and can handle his bike adeptly due to his CX and MTB racing. Xander finished 12th overall in 25:56.

Road bikes were out in force last night. Chris Howie was 5th fastest of them in 26:24. Simon Titmuss was next in 25:58. Louis Moorehead, very fresh after covering 1,100km in the North of England last week, completed the simple distance of 10miles in 24:57. 2nd fastest road biker was Joe Agnew in 24:36 and the quickest and 8th overall, was Barry McColl in 24:11.

Basil Monks and I were just outside the top 5, finishing in the 23:30s. Maybe not as quick as I would like, maybe I need to attack the course more, like a street fighting man. Or at least get going from the beginning to start me up.

The usual hitters filled the top spots. And all within 15 seconds. 4th was John Waller of EH Star in 22:21. 3rd, though apparently late for his start time, but because we’re so nice we let him off. As well as apparently being slowed down because of normal socks was Alan Dean in 22:13. Only 5 seconds behind 2nd place. I am sure Sandy would have an algorithm to confirm the benefit of aero socks in this circumstance.

Speaking of which, eternally 2nd in the TT series was Sandy Waller, pipped to 1st place by 2 seconds. 1st was Elijah (genuinely did type Elijah Wood first time around) Kwon, who looked on fire, like a wild horse. I can confirm because he flew past me. Elijah finished in 22:06.

Thanks again to all the volunteers. Alan Burke, Gerry McGuire, Michael Perkins, Martin Graham, Lewis Hutchison, Derek Wilkie, Neil Glover and Chris Borthwick.

It’s a 4-marshal minimum for this course, so same strong volunteering numbers again next week please. Especially as Chief Volunteer Alan Burke has handed in an annual leave request and is on holiday cycling the Pyrenees. We’ll do the lefty course again on the 22nd June.

See you all then
Dan