by Keith Bickley

Last updated at 15:25, Friday, 13 July 2012

Border City Wheelers time trialers continued to search for the perfect ride on the A6 between Carlisle and Penrith.

Because of the warm temperature and very light wind, conditions were favourable for riders to get the best out of themselves.

Even the torrent of rain that overtook the latter stages of the event did not affect the riders, in fact it seemed to have helped as it cleared the air of some of the heavy atmosphere that can slow riders down.

This course is notoriously difficult and contains a total of 26 up-hill sections which range from short punchy hills to longer climbs such as the hill past Causeway House or up from Low Hesket, not forgetting the long drag, which gets increasingly steeper, before the drop down to the Stoneybeck roundabout.

The skills required to achieve a good ride on this type of course are as much psychological as physical. Riders have to resist the temptation to go flat-out in the first few miles as strength will drain from the legs in the last five miles resulting in more time lost at the end than gained at the beginning.

Time trialling discipline also requires riders to maintain a static upper body position and therefore they must avoid falling into the trap of getting off the seat and dancing on the pedals when going uphill as this is also counter productive in terms of consistent speed.

Finally, and counter intuitively, riders must try to resist going at absolute full speed on the down hill sections as the evidence is that riding at 90 per cent rather than 100 per cent down hill is more effective over the length of the ride due to the energy expended in fighting the increased drag effect caused by downhill speed.

Mark Thomlinson finished at the head of the field for the 25 miles in 1.01.42 ahead of triathlete Stuart Robinson in 1.02.12. Thomlinson will be aiming for a stronger second half of the season and has posted a good time to springboard from.

Of note also, is the improving time of Carl Winham who took a couple of minutes off his time over the same course earlier in the season.

Elsewhere, Wheelers were in action on the Levens course in the south of the county on Saturday evening. Richard Bickley missed out on 21 minutes dead for the 10 miles by eight seconds, Carlo Berton did an improving 21.53 and Mike Westmorland won the Vet60 category with a 22.20.

Border City youth riders made the long trip to the new Cyclopark in Kent also at the weekend for the National Youth Circuit Road Championships. Anna Armstrong was fifth in the Under-12 girls, Joseph Armstrong finished in the bunch and Ellis Kirkbride was 16th in the Under-16 Boys in a field of over 100 riders. All these riders still have another year in their age category so the are hopes for further success next year.

Results: 1, Mark Thomlinson 1.01.42; 2, Stuart Robinson 1.02.12; 3, Neil Robinson 1.03.00; 4, Mike Haugh 1.03.27; 5, Dave Rawle 1.04.22; 6, Dougi Hall 1.04.52; 7, Andrew Drummond 1.04.57; 8, Ian Pipes 1.05.03; 9, Paul King 1.05.09; 10, Alex Forbes 1.05.56; 11, David Milligan 1.06.00; 12, Oliver Thorne 1.06.32; 13, Paul Irons 1.06.45; 14, Graeme Currie 1.07.07; 15, Rob Dixon 1.08.21; 16, Brennan Waller 1.08.44; 17, Howard Cain 1.09.19; 18, Phil Hind 1.10.02; 19, Carl Winham 1.11.12; 20, Chris Irving 1.11.31; 21, Gary Dixon 1.11.47; 22, Keith Bickley 1.12.09; 23, Colin Jaggard 1.12.49; 24, Maureen Parker 1.16.48.

First published at 14:12, Friday, 13 July 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk