Result : ORRL – Round 1 – Charlbury ITT (H38/18)

A new addition to the Oxfordshire Road Race League this year, on Sunday Oxonians CC hosted the opening round with an individual Time Trial on road bikes on the undulating H36/18 course, up to the north of Blenheim Palace. We entered a team of 6 riders;

• Paul Elcock
• Chris Bartley
• Dan Marett
• Joe Edwards
• Harvey Weinberger
• Pete Ganderton

Conditions on the day were surprisingly good for early April…17-18’C and bright sunshine, with a mild breeze from the East (which picked up as the day went on). The ORRL event was set off after the Open event, with start times from 10am to 11am.

The start to the day was full of drama…Chris had to unfortunately drop out after succumbing to food poisoning, and on the morning Harvey had a mechanical nightmare, with his rear mech cable snapping, and the front refusing to shift on the start line (causing him to miss his start slot while we forced the front mech to work, to at least give him a choice of 2 gears!). Paul meanwhile had to have a late swap to a spare front wheel after a puncture…hardly ideal warm-up conditions (and it also caused me to forget to take any photos!)

…however everyone stepped up to the plate, and put in sterling performances! Paul went from a very nearly DNS to a comprehensive win, by nearly 5 minutes over second place! Dan put in a strong performance in his first ever TT to take 4th place, closely followed by Pete and Joe in 5th and 6th respectively. Special mention should go to Harvey, who completed the course in 1h37 on 2 gears, which would have placed him 8th before a rather harsh time penalty was applied for missing his start time (particularly harsh as he actually set off in Chris’s slot). It’s also worth pointing out that Paul’s winning time would have placed him second in the Open event where everyone was using full TT rigs, it was a genuinely classy ride that he put in.

So, GS Henley picked up the win, and won the team award as well. It certainly felt like victory in the face of adversity after all the drama at the start, and there were a lot of weary bodies sitting around afterwards as we waited for the results. Huge thanks and congratulations to Oxonians CC as well for running the event alongside their Open TT.

Full Results