ERC Midweek TT Series Week 15 - TTT Practice & A Guest Star
14 August 2019
Week 15 was an edition which in the hours preceding I’m not sure I’ve refreshed weather forecasts as much as I did today. Heavy Rain? Drizzle? Light rain? What would it be, in the end it was just a bit grey, the kind of grey which is best described by imagining you’re viewing a day through the colour palette of a John le Carré novel.
Upon arriving this week, actually in my skinsuit with TT bike in tow, I got some surprising looks after my long stints of volunteering. Either the looks were because folk were confused why I’d volunteer when its 25c+ but race when the weather turns shite again or because my terrible beard & hair means I’m steadily starting to resemble Tom Hanks in Cast Away.
Tonight was an interesting one because 2 groups decided to get some TTT practice in advance of the Scottish Champs next week, which meant the inevitable did not happen and this week was starved of an Alan Dean win. However in a sense the result was inevitable from when Adam Wild signed on. If you don’t know Adam is a bloody impressive cyclist, he won the CTT Sigma Sport series which has had John Archibald and Dan Bigham compete in this year. Essentially, imagine Mo Salah rocking up to a Sunday pub game - you know what’s going to happen before kick-off.
In regards to the inevitable Adam posted a time of 19:40, hmm reasonably sharp I'd say. I therefore will definitely be mentioning I beat Adam in a TT earlier in the year, the fact that Adam’s chain snapped is neither here nor there – a win is a win, but I’ll let him have this one…..
David Lewendon was 2nd with a great time of 22:38 – David’s time was not a shock, the fact that he turned up with his Giant Trinity actually built up was. For those not in the know the bike has been in a box in the attic for months upon months, so it was nice of David to finish the build with 3 races of the season left. I (Dan Kirk) was 3rd with 23:03, which was not bad going, I certainly couldn’t compete with Adam on the Watts to CdA stakes but after my long weekend on a beer laden road trip of the NC500 I’d smash him in the Watts to IPA stakes.
Another result worth mentioning is that of Elijah Kwon who at the ripe old age of 14 smashed it with a time of 24:36.
A big shoutout to Chris Howie as well; Chris recently suffered a really bad accident and is temporarily wheelchair bound. He emailed me in the week to apologise for not being able to volunteer (plus he said he likes the reports so, you know, he knows how to play the game) – I think you can all join me in wishing Chris the very best with his recovery & I look forward to him being able to make up for all those lost volunteering slots soon ;D
Many thanks again to our volunteers – Alan Burke, Ewan MacNeilage and Michael Perkins.
I’m away in the Lake District next week so next week's volunteers I’ll make sure to liaise with to ensure all the admin is done & need not worry, I’ll use my imagination to determine what went on & write a report.
Cheers,
Dan