Sunday marked the running of Lewes Wanderers Open thirty-mile event. The thirty-mile option is one seldom used, with 25-miles being the preferred racing distance for most testers. The novelty of the distance sets its own problems with the extra five miles making pace judgement somewhat tricky.
Riders set off in warm pleasant conditions with a mere whisper of a breeze to trouble them. There were some superb performances on the day culminating in team victory for the fastest three riders from a single club, awarded to the Lewes trio of Nick Dwyer, Pete Morris and Rob Pelham. The times of Morris (1:06:17) and Pelham (1:06:52) when combined with Dwyer’s time of 1:05:55 managed to improve the trio’s club record , set last year, by over two minutes. Steve Kane of Brighton Excelsior was the overall winner of the event in a time of 1:04:19.
There were several notable performances by members of the Lewes squad. Dan Gardner stormed round the course in a remarkable time of 1:08:42, setting a new junior club record, one which will be hard to beat. What made Dan’s performance so impressive was that he rode the course on a normal road bike as opposed to the customary and faster time trial machine. Lisa Glandfield stepped into unknown territory in riding this distance and performed heroically to finish in a time of 1:29:13. The Lewes squad featured heavily on the start sheet and were well represented on the honours board. Nick Dwyer added the Standard award to his overall second position and teamed up with Tom Glandfield (1:08:55 ) and your correspondent (1:15:42) to win VTTA medals for the highest Surrey and Sussex Veteran team of three. In the club awards, the top three on Standard were Dwyer, Lloyd and Peter Baker(1:14:02),with the Handicap awards going to Richard Frost (1:23:02), Dan Gardener and Matt Coombs, who had a fine ride in a time of 1:10:03.
Rob Pelham, ably assisted by his band of hard working helpers, ran the event with his customary clockwork precision and was grateful for the generous sponsorship from the Giant store based at Shoreham.
Earlier in the week the Wanderers staged their club event, the Circuit of Earwig. The course features some testing sections on its 17.68-mile journey from Laughton on a circular route to finish at the top of the Broyle. With favourable conditions many riders set PB times. Nick Dwyer was overall winner and first on Standard in a fast time of 38:59, edging out Pete Morris by a narrow seventeen second margin. Tom Glandfield completed the podium places with a fine ride of 40:33. Your correspondent was second on Standard (43:58) followed by Dominic Lowden (42:44). First handicap went the way of the fast improving Tom Benjamin (44:05), with the evergreen Pete Baker grabbing second spot (42:54) with the third position being filled by David Beale, who dipped under the fifty minute barrier with a time of 49:10.
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