A win although we finished fourth…

Steve Whittington and Dan Shackleton, both hitting a bit of time trial form, rode the Blackburn & District CTC 10 mile 2-up TTT on the L105 course near Garstang on Thursday 18^th May.

There was plenty of talk in the weeks beforehand about tactics, pacing, strategy and the need to have practice runs. In the end, the only practice comprised of 5 minutes before a midweek club 10 and 15 minutes or so on the night whilst warming-up!

The first half of the course along the A6 was fast with both riders taking turns and averaging nearly 50 km/h. From the first turn along the winding A586 to St. Michaels, the pace was still high at around 48 km/h. However, along the twisting unclassified road to the finish near Myerscough College, the pace dropped to around 44 km/h as both riders reached their limit, not helped by a road surface more likely to be found on one of Rick Clough’s “adventurous” rides – not really one for super-rigid carbon frames and disk wheels…

About 700 metres from the finish, Whit shouted to Dan: “I’m done” to which he got the reply: “me too”. Fortunately, they rounded the last corner with the finish line in sight (although the anticipated sprint finish by Whit to take the “win” on the line didn’t materialise).

The fastest pairing on the night was local JLT Condor professional rider James Gullen riding with David Allonby, who between them did an incredible time of 19:15 to win the first composite team prize and a bonus prize for breaking the course record.

Steve and Dan were the 4^th fastest team, recording a 20:57. This was good enough to win the prize for the fastest team (as all of the faster pairings were composite teams). They were also the fastest vet pairing, however, under the events one team one prize rule, the fastest vet team prize was awarded elsewhere.

Former ABC Centreville member Jack Milhench, now in his 70’s and riding with the East Lancs Road Club, won the lantern rouge with his club mate Dave Trippier.

Photo credit: Ellen Isherwood