I spent a pleasant Sunday morning in Lydd, marshalling the KCA 100 mile TT. The weather was overcast at first, but then the sun came out. The ever present north easterly breeze was their in the faces of the riders as they rode from Camber through T to Lydd. The main part of the course involves 4 laps of the Brenzett-Camber-Lydd circuit.
My position in Lydd was at approximately 29 miles, 51 miles, 73 miles and finally 95 miles. It was interesting to watch the battle between Nic Fennell and Neil Lauder of PMR. First time through, Neil was up on Nic by about two minutes, and then up by about four minutes on the second lap. On lap three, Nic had clawed back about 40 seconds, so still down by around 3.20. The last time through, at 95 miles, Nic was only about 45 seconds behind, and got back nearly all of that time to finish second, just 4 seconds behind Neil. Nic’s time was 3.42.19, an improvement of over 5 minutes on his PB.
The other club riders taking part were Paul Kirkness who recorded 4.46.06, and that was after riding the club 10 the day before! Matt Seward rode a steady race to end up with 4.27.30. I guess that a 100 is a bit short for Matt, who has clocked up some epic rides over the last couple of years. Finally, a special mention must go to Scott Meeks. Scott was cut up by a car at around the 75 mile mark and although he didn’t collide with the car, he went over the bars and the bike landed on top of him. He only had a couple of minor scratches, and after checking the bike, he was determined to finish, having got so far. He ended up with 4.25.17, although his Garmin recorded about 4.17.ish, so he lost about 8 minutes because of the incident.
Well done to all our riders. The 100 is a brutal event, and this was evident when a number of riders didn’t complete the course.
Report by Dave Mastin.